Massed Up
by DelVarO
Summary: When I woke up I expected it to be a regular, mundane and boring day. What I definitely did NOT expect was me ending up on the Citadel, which happens to be in a totally different universe. God I hate thursdays.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay...Hi there! This is my first time entering the lair of self-inserting. I'm not sure how I will fare, but I will try my hardest. I'm a huge Mass Effect fan and I was inspired by the works of iNf3ctioNZ and Herr Wozzeck** **to try it myself. If you still have not read their stories, do so. Now. It's awesome.**

**On a note, I have to say that this is a trial version for now. I'm not sure how I will fare writing this down, since it's my first try and all and my experience is close to none but if everything will go well, I guess I'll continue it without any problems. If it wont...well, lets not go there, I really hope it will go just as I want it.**

**Disclaimer: I dont own Mass Effect or any other product related to it. It belongs to Bioware. Even if actually did own Mass Effect, I doubt it would've been good because Bioware created a masterpiece. ****Now that we're done with the disclaimer stuff, lets go on to the story.**

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><p>God, I hate mornings. I sluggishly stumble into the kitchen and start making myself a bowl of cereal, accidentally spilling half of the milk in the carton since I still didn't open my eyes. After cleaning the mess I made I finally sat down and ate my breakfast at a leisure pace.<p>

Damn, I want to sleep. At least one more hour. Freaking school with their whining teachers. I'm late by fifteen minutes and they start calling me, asking me where the hell am I. So either way, I wouldn't have slept for long anyway since my cellphone, which happens to be my alarm-clock, would've woken me up. For some reason the idea of simply turning the damn thing off never crosses my mind before going to sleep.

I glance out of the window to watch the frigid tundra that is outside. Freaking Russia. At least its not like everyone thinks it is. It's only minus twenty degrees now and it will get warmer later but damn, it was still cold.

With depressed resignation I go to wash my face and get dressed.

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><p>I stifle a massive yawn as I walk to the bus station in front of the house. I have to wonder why I'm bothering to go to the vocational school, since I pretty much completed all my courses and I only have the exams left, which will be in three weeks. Probably because I don't want the teachers to bother me about lowering my grades for lack of attendance. At least they don't really care about my lack of attention nowadays.<p>

I yawn again as I cross the road, already seeing the bus turning around the corner. Good, just on time, exactly as I like it.

Though before I can actually cross the road I feel a strong hand clamp on my shoulder and spin me around. I wanted to shout out a 'what the hell are you doing?' or something along those lines but what came out of my mouth sounded more like a "Wghey!"

Who the hell does things like this in the middle of a frozen road with incoming cars? I'm sure I don't know anyone who will do that in the neighborhood. When I finally spun around to see who it was I saw that it was someone completely unfamiliar and a bit out of place.

It was a blond man, maybe a few years older than me, with a wide grin on his face. The reason I was confused by how he looked was the simple fact that he wore a weird t-shirt and a thin-looking brown jacket. I was completely sure that the guy must be freezing right now. He didn't even have a hat!

"Hello!" the man greeted me cheerily, catching me completely off-guard and stopping my angry retort. What the hell is going on? I opened my mouth to say that I don't know him and that I'm being late but he interrupted me once again. "You know, you should really watch the road when you cross it," he said with a disappointed sigh, looking to his left.

"What?" I mumble out, looking at the same direction. A bright white light blinds me, I hear a loud car horn and the shriek of brakes. The blond guy doesnt move and he keeps holding me in place with his strong grip on my shoulder. Then again, I doubt I had any time to move since the car was barely five meters from us.

Shit.

Before I can do anything, or even open my mouth to scream like a girl, everything goes black, leaving me in inky darkness.

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><p>I groan as waves of nauseating pain hit my head. What the hell happened? Was I hit by that car? I'm not really sure. Everything hurts but it doesn't feel like anything's broken. More like I've been drinking a whole lot last night and I'm suffering a major hangover. Only without the alcohol.<p>

I'm lying on my back, resting on something hard, most probably the floor and realize that I'm sweating and actually feeling more than warm. Its hot. This lets me know that I wasn't left in the middle of the road, since then I would be freezing right now. With the amount of warm clothes I wear, I feel like I'm slowly being melted right now.

I slowly open my eyes and groan again at the bright lights that assault my eyes. I blink away the bleariness and finally get a good look at my surroundings. And I blink again.

I've been living in my town for only the past 3 years and I'm not entirely familiar with the whole area but I know for sure that it definitely doesn't have weird, metallic-looking alleys. Who the hell hits someone with a car and then dumps the still-living person in some weird, futuristic alley? This was fishy and my weird sense was tingling. I get up, ignoring the pain my aching muscles were giving me and finally stand up and get a better look.

Okay...I'm definitely not anywhere near home. First of all, my town was definitely not futuristic like...this. I had to admit that I already saw this somewhere but I couldn't trust my poor brain yet. I just woke up, supposedly got hit with a car and woke up again. I slowly walk out of alley to get a better look around and froze at what was greeting me.

Floors that were washed to the point I could see my reflection on it. Long arms of some enormous structure stretched into the distance and beyond them I could see purple-pink clouds and at some areas, the stars beyond. The small blinking lights on the structure's arms were blinking at me, just like the stars that I could see in the distance. A thing that looked like a flying car of some type flew above me in silence.

For that moment, all those things were completely forgotten in the favor of concentrating on the thing that was slowly approaching me. The avian features, the face-paint that I always considered badass, the horn-like things on his head...

A turian was walking towards me. A freaking turian. A freaking real-live turian that was currently glaring at me. I couldn't help it. I knew that I was probably gaping at him but I didn't really care at the moment. I was looking at a turian!

The turian huffed in annoyance and walked away, muttering something that I couldn't hear. I looked after him, wondering if I hit my head a little bit too hard. When he was out of sight I looked around and saw everything else.

Salarians, an asari or two, more turians and even an elcor were walking around, doing their business, with humans scattered around in the crowd in front of me.

I stop it. I slowly inched back into the alley and started trying to calm my suddenly quick breath.. I never had a panic attack before, but I was sure that this was it. I was on the Citadel. The freaking Citadel that _didn't_ exist.

I had several theories on how I ended up here. The first, and the leading one, was that I was hit so hard so hard I got brain damage and was now living in my own fantasy world. Another one was that the car hit me so hard it actually tore open the fabric of time and space and flung me over 150 years into the future or another universe altogether. The last one happened to be the milk being spoiled and I was currently rolling around in the dirty snow in front of the bus station, foaming at the mouth and having the trip of my life. Then again, I'm pretty sure that spoiled milk doesn't cause hallucinations. Maybe the spoiled milk triggered some obscure disease and I'm slowly dieing with extreme hallucinations? Maybe I've been watching too much House...

I peeked out of the alley again, hoping that it was my imagination but no, all the aliens and futuristic stuff were still there.

Shit. What the hell am I supposed to do now? None of the advise I ever got covered the part where I have finally gone insane and found myself at a place from a video game.

"Uh, excuse me?" a voice said from behind me.

I spin around, raising my arms to defend myself and maybe launch a punch or two to knock out whoever was attacking me. Thankfully no attack was coming and instead I found a salarian standing behind me, looking at me weirdly. My paranoia was starting to get to me. I lowered my arms and took a small step back from the alien because quite honestly I was finding him to be incredibly creepy. "Y-yes?" I asked and couldn't believe I was stuttering.

The salarian looked to be calming down and cleared his throat. "Ah yes, I was asked to give you something," the salarian said, looking my clothes, which probably looked really weird for him. I haven't seen anyone wear jeans and a leather jacket here, or a stocking cap, so far and I was suddenly aware that I was sticking out like a sore thumb. I did not want any attention at the moment.

And I still couldn't get over the fact that I was talking with an alien. Wasn't it only two days ago that I was complaining to Sand that life was too boring and that we needed an alien invasion to spice things up? I think that whoever listened that day must've messed something up. I wanted invaders in my world, not me invading another universe.

The salarian reached into his pocket and I tensed up, taking another step back, expecting to see a gun or a knife or some vile alien weapon that would incapacitate me and leave me alone in the alley, missing all my important organs.

Fortunately, the thing that came out of his pocket was a simple datapad and I realized that must be looking like an utter idiot to him. I quickly gather myself and take the datapad from his hands. Oh god, I took something from an alien! If I wasn't so freaked out at the moment I would've probably done a victory dance. Successful first contact for the win!

"Here you go," the salarian said. "I was already paid to give it to you so that will be all. Good day," and with that, the salarian walked away without giving me another look. I looked after him, wondering what the hell I was going to do now. I was light-years away from home, quite possibly a lot more than light-years. I had no way to go back, at least that I knew of. No money, no place to stay. I was completely lost and utterly alone. What the fuck did I get myself into? I needed help, but there was no one to help me...

Well, there was always Shepard and the team. If there was a reason for me to be here, Shepard must be the number one reason for it. But I had no idea when Shepard will get to the Citadel, or if Shepard already left it. Hell, I didn't even have a clue which gender Shepard was! I was utterly and undeniably screwed. I needed a plan...I needed something to do.

I looked down at the datapad I just got and with a mental shrug decided to check it out. It was better than nothing. As long as I had something to do, I had something to take my mind off the shitty situation if found myself in. It took me a bit over a minute to figure out how to use the unfamiliar tech but I eventually figured it out. Upon reading the first line I was feeling angry.

_'Grow a pair and walk out of the relatively-safe alley you're hiding in'_

Who the hell wrote this? How did they know I was in this alley anyway? And the jibe about me being a coward is completely unfair. I just had first contact with an alien! What happens if I stumble upon an angry krogan and my charm wont be able to save me from a painful death? Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a bit here. I'll steer clear of krogans for now until I manage to figure out what the hell I'm going to do. I'm also alone, lost in an unfamiliar place and scared out of my mind.

_'After you exit the alley, turn right and continue walking for five minutes until you see a cafe. I suggest you to not waste more time' _Okay, this was definitely weird. I considered my options and found nothing good. Whoever wrote this seems to know me. This was better than the nothing I currently have. I had a choice. I can either stay in this alley and try to think of a way to get home or I can actually do something while trying to find a way to get home and off this clusterfuck of a mess. Maybe this was a dream? I pinched myself and winced. I waited for several seconds but everything still remained the same. Damn. It seems I'm stuck here.

And so I gathered my breath and courage and took the first step out of the alley and turned right. As I walked I realized that I was right. Everyone was giving me the weirdest looks but then again, so would I in their place. The Citadel had a warm, pleasant temperature but with my thick and warm clothes it felt like I was walking through a desert on a summer day. I looked completely out of place, not just because I was dressed weirdly but also because I couldn't help but stare. The graphics in the games did no justice to any of the races. They looked so _real_ now. Then again, if this was not a weird hallucination or a freaky dream, they actually _are_ real. If I'm in a video game, does it make them real? Where does that leave me? Am I real? I decided to steer away from these thoughts. I would just end up confusing myself and I was already confused more than enough, thank you very much.

Exactly around five minutes after I left the alley I finally spotted the cafe. It was a relatively small place. Most of the tables were taken too. A couple of salarians were sitting by one table, chatting animatedly. A grumpy-looking turian was slowly sipping something out of his cup. Another turian was eating something, a blond guy was waving me over, an asari was talking her friend, a young human woman was taking an order from a customer.

I paused and backtracked. There really was a blond man waving me over with a wide grin. I walked closer and narrowed my eyes as I could see him in more detail. That grin looked incredibly familiar.

And then it hit me. I stopped in place and simply stared at the man, who was still grinning and waving me over like an idiot. This was the same guy who stopped me in the middle of the road. The same guy who I last saw before I woke up on the Citadel. The same guy who started this whole mess.

I'm not a violent guy, I never actually looks for fights but I was going to beat the living daylight out of him. With my bare hands. Maybe I'll grab the fork that turian is using. Sharp objects tend to cause much pain, and much pain is what I'm aiming for.

But first...I need some goddamn answers.

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><p><strong>So here it is. The first chapter is now over. <strong>**I honestly have no idea how it came out. Was it abysmal? Was it okay? Was it good? Meh, it's up to you I guess. It would make me happy to know what you think about it.**

**You should leave a review or a PM to let me know what you think. I would gladly accept any constructive criticism, suggestions and plain opinions. Hell, you can outright tell me that my story is shit, just give me a reason _why_it sucks before I ignore it. Feel free to point out any mistakes I made (I make sure to write without them, but sometimes they manage to slip by my notice, you know how it goes) or tell me I forgot something. Giving me your opinion will help me better the story in the long run.**

**So...I guess some questions will be answered next chapter...and some wont be. So, until the next chapter, Delvaro out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello there! I'm back with the second chapter! Surprisingly quickly, I know.**

**First of all, I want to thank everyone who reviewed (Phoenix'sSoul) for the support. I'm glad you gave me your opinion. It helps me a lot ^^ Also thanks to all who added the story to their favorites or alert list. Glad you liked it. :D**

**Now, back to business, this is the second chapter. In this chapter you might get some answers and you might not. Depending on what aswers you're looking for. So, without more delays, read the new chapter.**

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><p>I walked up to his table, clenching my fists in anger and fighting down the urge to simply jump on him and start punching. Instead I just slammed my hands on his table and leaned in, looking directly into his eyes.<p>

"Who the fuck are you?" I growled at him. I hope I sounded at least somewhat intimidating, I know I don't look like it.

The blond man simply averted his eyes and didn't look at me. So I waited until he will say something and waited...and waited some more. What the hell was his problem? "Well, are you going to answer?" I asked through clenched teeth. I'm not sure how long I could take this without attempting to punch in that nose of his.

The man turned away from me with a huff. "My mother taught me that if someone is rude to me, I shouldn't talk to them," he said. "and you are definitely rude," he finished with a pout.

This effectively stopped all the functions of my brain and effectively evaporated my anger. I simply stared at him, both confused and shocked. Was this guy for real? Is he an idiot or simply insane? I'm having a crisis here and he _pouts_ at me?

By the time my brain started working again the guy was gesturing at the chair in front of him. I numbly sat down and stared at him. Now that I sat down he fully turned to me with that huge grin of his, which I found to be incredibly creepy. I brush my teeth, yeah, but sometimes I forget to. I know a guy who brushes his teeth after every single meal and his teeth are white. But compared to the man in front of me they are just gray. I swear to god, his teeth are so white that I might be blinded if he would lean in a certain angle and reflect the light off them to my face.

Also, now that I was fully awake and the place was well-lit, I could actually see his face in full detail. His blond hair was pulled back, though some hairs stuck out from his haircut, hanging down to his brow. He had bright green eyes, a straight nose, high cheekbones and a firm chin. To put it simply, he looked like a regular pretty-boy you see on TV.

He looked to be in his late twenties, but I could be wrong. I was never a good judge of age. What I saw as a jacket earlier this morning was apparently a well-worn brown trenchcoat, which for some reason reminded me of the one Thane wore in Mass Effect 2. His other clothes looked to be from the futuristic variant that everyone seemed to favor here. A black shirt with some unknown logo on it, and dark brown pants.

"Your English is good by the way, though you still have an accent," he remarked, still grinning like a maniac.

"Uh, thanks," I say awkwardly. I am kinda proud that someone complimented my English, since it's not my main language, though I can say that its my secondary. It felt somewhat nice. I guess all the hours I spent talking with people from other countries on TeamSpeak finally paid off!

"So, are you feeling fine? Is everything okay?" he asked, staring at me in a weird way that made me feel like he was trying to read my mind.

My anger returned. Feeling fine? Hell no! "I have a headache, I have no idea where I am now and I was hit by a car because of you," I said with a massive scowl.

"Oh, really? That's awful!" he said with an exaggerated gasp, raising a hand to his mouth.

Must not murder him. Must not murder him...

"Is anything broken?" he asked with a tone that clearly showed how unworried he was. It was as if he was talking about a...sandwich or something incredibly mundane like that.

"Uh, no," I said slowly, trying to figure out where this was going.

"Then you weren't hit by a car. As far as I'm aware, you kinda get broken bones and sometimes die when that happens, right?" he said slowly, as if he was explaining something to a child. "As for your headache, that's probably from landing on your head when you got here, I dunno."

I frowned, disappointed that I found _some_ logic in his words. If the car hit me, I should be in a lot of pain, not just a headache. "Alright, so why am I here? Who are you? Why me?" I asked hoping to get a real answer.

"Tsk, tsk," he actually said 'tsk'. That's more than weird. And the way he was shaking his head in disappointment at me was infuriating. "You read fanfictions, don't you? What do the self-insert authors do most of the time?" he asked in a bored tone.

Well, that's so obvious that I already thought of it before meeting with him. "Help Commander Shepard," I answered. So I guessed right. I'm here to help Shepard. I mean, what else am I going to do here? Become a merchant?

"Yep. Guessed it in one," he paused to take a sip from his coffee. I could smell it from the other side of the table so it must be strong. I was never a coffee man, preferred tea most of the time, but I wouldn't mind drinking one now. "As for who I am..." he paused there, making me lean forward in anticipation. "I am nobody," he finished with a smile and shattered my calm. How can one person be this infuriating? Thankfully I think he noticed that I was very annoyed and continued. "I guess you can call me...G-Man."

Half-Life? Really? "You lack the briefcase and the business suit," I said and crossed my arms, utterly unimpressed.

"And you lack glasses and you don't have a crowbar," he said with the same tone. "Well, you can call me the Chairman. Should work for now."

"The Chairman?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, the Chairman. I like sitting in chairs. That's what chairmen do," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Okay..." I lean forward, giving him the most serious look I could muster. "Why me?"

The Chairman – cant believe I'm referring to him by that name now but it's still better than 'that guy' all the time – leaned back in his chair, making himself more comfortable and gave me a smug smirk. "Because you're special."

My eyebrow rises further up. Why am I special? I didn't actually accomplish anything unusual. To put it simply, I'm a regular everyday normal guy, like the generic-looking guys you pass by when you walk down the street. That's the best way to sum me up. I don't have any supernatural power's as far as I know, though I wouldn't mind having one or two. "How so?"

"You're here, aren't you? Doesn't that make you special already?" he asked with a smirk and sees the look I'm giving him. "Oh come on! How selfish can you be? You want to be even_ more_ special? Kids these days, only want to be '_special_' and '_unique_'." he rebuked indignantly. I frown at him, annoyed that I couldn't get a straight answer out of him.

"So what now?" I finally snap. Can't he just tell me what I want to know?

"Oh, that's simple. You have a choice! You can either stay here, help Commander Shepard, probably die, maybe survive..._or_, you can go back to your boring life and do boring stuff until the day you die," he said it with a cheerful tone and a smirk. "You don't have to answer now, I'll give you some time to think about it."

He gave me a choice. I could go back? This was...unbelievable. "So what do I do now?" I asked, filing the important question to the back of my head. I have to admit that I'm curious as hell about the Citadel. He gave me some time to think, so I might as well explore this place while I can!

"Let's see..." he muttered, lifting his hand. The orange holographic display of an omni-tool pops up and I cant help but stare at it. Before I can inspect more of the device it winks out, leaving me slightly disappointed. Well, I'll just have to get my hands on one to check it out later. "Right now its 2182," 2182...Shepard wasn't even on Eden Prime yet! That's good, I think. "You have about six months until Eden Prime so you better use them wisely and make yourself useful," he told me with a serious tone, surprising me to some degree.

"Useful?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Well, you don't really expect Shepard to just take you aboard the Normandy and take you to a high-risk mission while you are petty much useless. Your physical shape is abysmal, you cant run a mile without being breathless and you never used a gun before and no, that Mosin Nagant doesn't count," he interrupted me as I opened my mouth, leaving me speechless. How did he even know I used that rifle? Okay, this is really not helping my already existing paranoia. Was this guy following me around?

"Wait, I didn't say I would be doing this yet," I responded, reminding him that he gave me a choice that I haven't decided yet. I decided to ignore the part where I he said I was utterly useless.

"I know. But you wouldn't mind meeting Shepard or anyone else from the crew, would you? They're not exactly someone you can bump into while grocery shopping" he said with a knowing smirk.

Well, he got me there. I'd really like to actually meet up with them, talk with them, provided I wont squeal like a fangirl. That might unnerve them. It's not every day that you can meet up with your favorite video game characters. I guess I can play along for now.

"So what do I do?" I'm repeating this question a lot today...

"I'd suggest visiting the hospital about your lung problem. You wouldn't believe how advanced the medicine is today. As for everything else...beats me. It's up to you," he replied with a shrug.

"So wait...you're just gonna leave me here to do what I want, without telling me anything else?" I asked incredulously. I'm completely ignorant of the world. I have no idea how to use an omni-tool, I don't have any money, I don't have a place to stay and I honestly have no idea where I am on the Citadel. The game just showed me a fraction of the whole Citadel.

"Yep. I don't care. Not my problem. Do what you want. Don't get killed. Simple as that," the Chairman shrugged again and I could just gape at him. What an ass!

"I don't even have any money!" I said loudly, bordering on shouting. One of the other customers glanced at me oddly before he returned to his own conversation. I decided to ignore him.

The Chairman snorted. "You think I care? Sell something. Kill someone. For all I care, become a rent-boy. I. Don't. Care," he said, looking at me with half-interest.

"You're an ass," I tell him, frowning like never before. Did he really have to be such an ass? I'm trying to be polite now that I'm not planning to beat his face but he goes and ruins it.

"Thank you, I try. The datapad I gave you has a map of this place so if you know how to use the thing, you wont get lost," he said, the smug smirk returning to him.

I take out the datapad and start searching for the map. It takes me about a minute to find the map and I'm slightly surprised at the actually size of the Citadel. Sure, I knew it was big but it's an entirely different thing to be here instead of watching it on a screen. The map proved to be quite useful, as it showed me any important landmarks, shops and other places, like clubs, hotels and whatever else a visitor might need to know. Most of the area is completely unfamiliar but eventually I find a familiar place, which happened to be Chora's Den. Unfortunately, it was on another 'arm' so I'll have to take one of those flying cars because I really didn't want to spend hours walking there.

"Another thing," Chairman said with the most serious tone I heard so far. "Don't fuck it up. There is a lot of stuff riding on this. You fuck up too much and shit hits the fan and we all die. Most importantly, don't fuck up the continuity."

"I already changed stuff by simply being here," I commented with a raised eyebrow. What can I actually change to doom us all?

"Yes, but that's acceptable. I'm talking about the 'waking up one lovely morning and shooting Udina in the face' kind of fucking up. Shit like that will send the canon into FUBAR mode, and this usually ends with a lot of bad things, like you being dead. So as I said, don't fuck things up."

I gulp at his words. The way he makes it sound I will doom the whole galaxy if I change anything big. Udina is annoying, but I wasn't ever thinking about killing him. Punching him? Yes. Killing him? No. I think I'll just wait and see how everything goes. Being extra careful wont hurt anyone, so I might as well think before I do something important.

"Okay. I wont do anything drastic," I say with a nod.

He returns the nod. "Good," he then leans to the side and looks at something behind me and suddely looks very surprised. "Holy crap, is that Shepard?"

I quickly whirl around in my seat to look. I quickly scan the crowd but...there's no one who looks like Shepard. In fact, there is no one who looks armed or wearing any armor. What the hell?

"Oh, and good luck Alex," the Chairman says as I turn around and jump in the chair when I see that there is no one there. I'm sitting alone. I turn my head left and right, looking for a blond man but there is no trace of him anywhere. Okay, now this is officially creepy. People don't just vanish. Maybe he has a stealth system like Kasumi's?

I look at the turian at the neighboring table. "Excuse me? Did you see where the blond guy who was sitting with me went to?" I asked politely, slightly nervous. From what I saw, some turians don't like humans very much and this turian looks quite...annoyed.

"What? What do you want?" he gruffly says as he glares at. Well, I did interrupt his breakfast...or whatever it is for him. He glances at the table. "Don't know who you're talking about. I didn't see any blond humans. Now leave me alone!" he waves me away and I take several steps back. "bloody humans..." I hear him mutter as I walk away from the cafe.

Okay...that went well, I guess? I mean, he was kinda grumpy to begin with so its not entirely my fault. Doesn't matter anyway because I'm officially freaked out. I don't bother asking anyone else if they saw the Chairman because if they will say that they never saw him, I will be even _more_ freaked out.

At least this proved that he knew about more more than he said. He knew my name and the fact that I used an old rifle once, something that not many people know anyway. I would place my bets that he knew ever more about me. This didn't exactly made me feel good. The guy was stalking me and that's very disturbing.

While I didn't get many answers, I did get some. Now I also felt annoyed that I didn't ask all the questions that were popping into my head now. Like how the hell he transported me here. I know some people back home that would kill to know of a way to travel to another universe. I'll ask him the next time I see him. _If_ I see him. Shit, I have no way to contact him. Not that I actually want to.

Now that I walk through the Citadel I feel not as bad as I used to. I now know that I have a choice. I can go home, or help Shepard. It makes me feel somewhat good. But the question remains in my mind...

Do I really want to go home?

I quickly banish the question to the back of my mind. I have time to think about it. I cant just abandon my family anyway. What happened to me back there anyway? Are they worried? Did I just disappear? Damn, I really don't want to think about this now. I'll just end up thinking about it all the time and torture myself with those questions and the fact that I cant get the answers. Besides, I had more important things to do.

I might as well take the Chairman's advise and go check out the hospital. Asthma sucked and getting rid of it would be nice. I also have some stuff to sell. I doubt I need my old money now and maybe I could sell them for a good price. I think it's considered ancient money now.

I quickly shuffle through the map, finding the closest hospital. It takes me about five minutes, since I'm still clumsy with the datapad and by some miracle I haven't collided with anyone. According to the map, the closest hospital was a little over an hour on foot from my position but...there was one of those transport stations near it. I could ride one of those flying car things to the place.

I quickly find one of those transportation terminal. I quickly tapped in the location I wanted to go to and it instructed me to wait. Man, it feels really weird to be using those holographic displays. It will take some time to get used to.

About five minutes later and by that time I was already feeling impatient, a flying car silently approached and landed in front of the terminal and the door opened with a hiss. I stare at the opened door as if its a gateway to the abyss before I climb into the car with a gulp. I don't see anyone inside. Not even a driver. A small holographic panel asks me to verify the destination. I hesitantly do it and the door closes with a hiss and I feel the car move. I slowly sink into the seat and hope I wont freak out. I send a glance to the empty spot where the driver should be and gulp again, my throat suddenly very dry.

Oh god, I'm going to die.

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><p><strong>And...thats it! Not very long, but a bit longer than the last one, by a few hundred words. <strong>

**First of all, I'm entirely unsure about some things so I will have to just make it up as I go. Like the transport cars. I have no idea if they're free or what, so I go for free. Same for how they work. It's not like they showed us this in the games, other than the fact that they fly without a driver. So yeah, if you know something that I dont, please notify me. I'd be glad to know it.**

**Like I sad up above, thanks for all the support! I'm really glad that you liked the story so far, or that it interested you enough to keep an eye out for further chapters. I would love to recieve more constructive criticism or just opinions and what you think about whatever caught your attention in the story. Leave a PM or a review or something. I'll even reply :P**

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Greetings! I'm back and I see that you're still here!**

**First of all, I have one thing to say. Holy. Crap. Just a second, let me finish my geeking out phase and I'll be back in a minute.** **I cant believe that so many people left me a review and that they actually loved the story so far! To make it even more awesome, most of them are fellow authors of this genre and I'm quite a fan of their works.**

**This feels exactly as if Jackie Chan would come out of nowhere and say 'Love your work. Keep it up'. I have no idea how Jackie Chan is related to Mass Effect or fanfiction****, but it would awesome regardless. Anyone who can kick ass with a _ladder_ of all things and swing it around like nunchucks is a demi-god in my eyes.**

**So yeah, thanks for the major support! It's just been three days and I got some many readers and reviewers so far from all kinds of awesome people! Your support makes me feel awesome!** **Let's get on with the story...**

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><p>The car ride was...interesting. Admittedly half of the time I was clinging to my seat with the hopes I wont die in a fiery explosion but around halfway to my destination I calmed down enough to look out of the window. The view was honestly spectacular. The game did it no justice. At all. The Citadel was huge. It kinda made me feel really small and insignificant. And then it dawned on me that I'm in space. I freaked out a little more but I calmed down after a couple of minutes to marvel at the interesting experience.<p>

I have to admit that I find the flying cars puzzling. I'm studying machinery at the school and I pretty much know how a car works by details. Give me proper tools, my personal guidebook and I can probably fix some small problems in the car and maintain it in perfect working conditions. Or as Garrus would say, I could calibrate it every single day. The only problem: inner combustion engines were outdated and practically nonexistent now and since my expertise was with those engines...my knowledge was useless. Well, here three years go flying out of the window. I knew I should've studied cooking instead. At least that's tasty. And I was told the ladies love a cooking man.

Once the car stopped at my destination I jumped out of it as if my life depended on it. I gathered some strange looks by I ignored those in favor of enjoying solid floor beneath my feet. I don't really have a fear of heights or anything, or fear of flying as far as I know. I flew only once on an airplane and that's it. What freaked me out the most was the fact that the car was without a driver. In my universe, a car that moves without a driver is either a ghost car, or is rolling uncontrollably towards it's doom. None of the options appeal to me.

Once I calmed down and got as far away as possible from the Devil-Car I came to a halt in front of the hospital and remembered that I don't have money, or anything. I doubt treatment is free for guys who pop out from nowhere. I don't even have an ID!

Okay, change of plans. Simple as that. I memorize the location and start wandering in a random direction, checking out the shops I pass by to see what they were selling. After a few minutes I finally stumbled upon a shop that seemed to sell electronics. I walked inside and saw only a pair of customers who were talking with the salarian behind the counter.

I patiently waited until they left before I approached the salarian. "Can I help you with something?" the salarian asked, looking at my clothes with some interest.

"Ah, yes," I said, trying to decide where to begin. "You see, it's my first time out of earth. I just arrived today and I wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Oh, feel free to ask. We're always glad to help new customers," the salarian said with a polite smile.

"Okay, some of those questions might sound weird. My parents weren't exactly...tech-friendly," plan number one: blame everything on the parents. "I want to know where exactly do I store my credits."

The salarian looked taken aback by the question. I couldn't blame him. The question was probably something little children learned in kindergarten. "Well, your account. Where else will you store them?" he answered awkwardly.

"Okay. How do I get an account?"

"Oh, that's easy. You pay the standard fee for it and you can access it via extranet," the salarian replied, still looking a bit awkward. Again, I couldn't blame him. "Would you like to create one?"

"Yeah...that's a small problem. You see, I don't have any money and I'm looking to sell some things..." I pause there, an idea striking me. This _is_ an electronics store. I quickly reach into my pocket and pull out my cellphone. "Like this."

I swear, the salarian's eyes bugged out when he looked at the now-primitive device. "Is..what is that? Is that...a cellular phone that you humans had?" he asked with apparent awe. "In perfect condition too!"

"Yep, in working condition too. Too bad there is no reception," I said with a small smirk. Yeah, apparently in 2182 the reception sucks. "I don't need it that much so I decided to sell it. You know someone who might be interested in buying it?"

The salarian perked up and his eyes positively shone. "Oh, as a matter of fact I do! I have an acquaintance who happens to have an interest in old human artifacts, preferably electronics. He would like to buy it but unfortunately he's out on business and he will return in a couple of months but...I'm willing to buy it from you," the clerk said it so fast I nearly lost him right there. "How about twenty thousand credits?"

I knew exactly what he was doing. I was willing to bet all my nonexistent money that my phone was a lot more and that he will sell my phone to his acquaintance for twice the price he was offering me. Right now though I didn't really care. I needed money. That didn't mean I couldn't barter.

"Hmm...I'll throw in these if..." I pulled out my acid-green earphones out of the folds of my shirt to show them to him. "and you give me the twenty grands and a decent omni-tool," I offered.

"Hm, looks to be old, from the same era as the phone..." the clerk muttered as he inspected the earphones. "Alright, it's acceptable," the salarian nodded with a smile.

And from there it went smoothly. We finished the trade and came out happily. I had a brand new omni-tool and the clerk had a not-so-brand new cellphone and earphones. I felt kinda bad for leaving all my music list on the phone but it was worth it. I was never one of those people who thought a phone showed the person's social status. You had a brand new phone with as much useless crap you could stuff into it? You're the coolest. You had a phone that was used only as a phone? You're a loser.

The salarian even opened me an account, free of charge. That was very nice of him, though considering I sold him an item probably at half-price, I freaking deserved that free account. After that he gave me the quick instructions on how to use the thing, which was surprisingly easy to understand. I still couldn't do anything beyond opening the map, logging into the extranet, checking my account and looking at the time but for now it was enough. Hacking doors and overloading shields was beyond reach for me for the moment.

I left the shop with a pleasant smile on my face, checking out what I could do on my omni-tool. The thought alone made me giddy. I have an omni-tool. I have an omni-tool. I can repeat that thought all day long and still be giddy. Now the only thing left to do was visit the hospital...and at that thought my mood dropped.

I don't know why, but I always had an irrational anxiety in hospitals. It's not fear but I always worry when I'm in them. I sometimes feel that any moment some doctor would jump out of nowhere and point a finger at me, shouting 'You have cancer!' or some other horrible and lethal disease. Yes, it's silly, but I cant help it.

On the way to the hospital I stopped by a small diner to get myself something to eat and got myself a levo-amino burger. It was quite good and it filled my empty stomach for the next few hours. While I was eating I took a seat on one of the stools and observed the street. It was just surreal. I still couldn't believe that I was on the Citadel. I'm light-years away from Earth! I decided to use my time here as much as I could. Maybe I wont have another chance.

As I was finishing the tasty burger my omni-tool pinged loudly. I furrowed my brow as I activated it and read what it wanted from me.

_You have 2 new unread message._

I raise my eyebrow at this and open the messages. The first one was surprisingly from The Chairman. I opened it with caution, wondering what he wanted from me now.

_Hey, consider this a small gift from yours truly. Should help you out a bit._

I raise an eyebrow. Gift? What gift. There was nothing attached. My eyes focused on the second message. I opened it and my eyes bugged out and I started chocking on the burger that I was swallowing exactly that moment.

_200,000 Credits were deposited to your account._

Current balance: 219,995

Holy shit! I didn't know much about the currency here but I knew that two-hundred grands was quite a sum! Alright, maybe I don't hate the chairman now. I'll settle for disliking him. He's still an ass after all. I had no idea how long this will last for me but I knew that I could buy some decent armor and weapons with this. Now I just need to know how much a hotel-room costs and I'll be set.

Now happier than before I left the diner and reached the hospital in just a few minutes. I walked into the building and was directed to the elevator. I stepped into the elevator with a turian and another human, the doors closed and I felt the elevator rise.

This reminded me how much I hated using the elevator with people I don't know. It's always so awkward! I either start cracking up for no reason or just end up nervous for some reason. The elevator was going up and up and up...and the end was nowhere in sight.

By the gods! Don't tell me the elevators here are seriously this slow! In the game it was just to replace the loading screens but there is nothing to load here! Goddammit! It's been around three minutes now and I feel the turian's stare drilling a hole in the back of my head. Is this how the reapers destroyed the civilizations before the protheans? Bored them to death with extremely slow elevators?

The elevator stops and the doors open with a gentle ping and I practically fly out of it. I don't get it. Why do turians always look at me funny? Do I smell or something? Is it my clothes? I have no idea. I'm just glad to be out of it and away from that turian.

The hospital doesn't look that full. I can see around a dozen people milling about in the lobby. There was a desk by the wall where the receptionist sat. There were a couple of couches with some patients sitting there. Several corridors branched out to the other parts of the building and on both sides of the receptionist's desk were two stairways that lead to the second floor. And the whole place looked pristine. I could easily see my own reflection on the floor. Hopefully this wont take too long. I recall all my visits to the clinic back home. I always had to wait nearly an hour until it was my turn. Another reason why I hated visiting hospitals and clinics. The waiting time.

I approached the human receptionist, a handsome-looking young woman and asked where I could see a doctor. She pointed me to the right direction and I quickly left her alone to get this over with.

I walked up the stairs to the second floor and continued along the corridors to the clinic. Once I arrived to the place I saw to my dismay that I would have to wait. A handful of patients were already waiting there. Everyone took a glance at me before they returned to their business. After a quick question I found out that I'll get my turn after the middle-aged bald human. With a shrug I sat down on one of the chairs and grabbed a random brochure from the small table.

Time passed slowly as I read the brochure, though I nearly had no idea what I was reading about. It was a brochure about common alien diseases that could infect other species. Some of them were quite...I have no fitting word for it. Maybe unpleasant? I guess it would do for now. It was even more awkward to know that most of them were transmitted through sex. Just my luck, I had to pick up a brochure about alien STD. No wonder that woman in front of me is giving me odd looks.

Awkward...

Alright. I slowly place the brochure back and pretend this never happened. Unfortunately the woman preferred to stare at me. I tried to ignore her and decided to fiddle with my omni-tool and try to find out new functions.

By the time my turn came up I discovered that my omni-tool had a flashlight, a music player and most importantly, a codex. Before now I was cursing myself for never fully reading the codex in the games. Sure, I read a few entries here and there but I never read everything in it. That's a lot of reading material. Thankfully, now I have no more problems about it since I have my own genuine copy of the codex. I would've checked out some of the entries but I had a doctor to meet.

When I entered the office I was greeted by a man with dark brown hair, looking to be in his thirties sitting behind his table, typing something into a holographic keyboard. He had thick eyebrows and a neatly trimmed goatee. He wore a white lab-coat over some formal-looking clothes. I squinted at the name-tag. Doctor J. Morrison. He looked up at me with inquisitive brown eyes and a raised eyebrow.

"Are you that kid with some alien disease a woman before you warned me about?" he asked.

Oh god. By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss. I cant believe this is happening to me. I cringe at his words and I'm willing to bet my money that I'm red as a tomato right now. "No!" I exclaim quickly. "I just picked up a random pamphlet and the woman misunderstood!"

He narrowed his eyes at me and hummed in thought. "Whatever you say. We'll find out in a minute anyway," he said with a small smirk. "What appears to be your problem?"

I cleared my throat, hoping that any mention of this incident would be forever forgotten. I have to admit that this is the first time something like this happened to me. Back to the matter at hand though. "Well, I'm new to the Citadel so I don't really know how it works here but I want a health check. You know, to see if everything's fine. Do I need to go somewhere specific for it?"

The doctor shook his head. "No, we can do this right here. Please stand still," he said as he stood up and walked over to me, activating his omni-tool. He stopped in front of me and slowly began to run his omni-tool over my whole body from all sides.

Wow, this is really convenient. I'm starting to like these things more and more. I doubt my omni-tool has a medical scanning program, but I really should check what is available out there. I should check out the extranet too. As he scans me I look around the office. It's really spartan in design. The table, two chairs and some diagrams on the wall. I saw medical diagrams of various organs, some of them human and some not. A couple of large cabinets were in the corner of the room, filled with who knows what. His table had some unknown devices and I simply couldn't figure out their purpose.

Morrison's omni-tool pings and he walks back to his table. He runs his omni-tool over the keyboard and data suddenly pops up on his previously-blank screen. I quietly sit down and anxiously wait, wondering if he is going to tell me I have a lethal disease that will kill me in 3 minutes. I see him furrowing his brow as he reads and then he looks at me grimly. Oh shit, something's wrong.

He stands up from his table and walks over to one of the cabinets and takes out a small device that looked like a pen. "Hold still and give me your hand," he ordered calmly. I did as he told and offered him my left hand. I watched as he pressed the pen-thing against my index finger and after a second I felt a sudden sting, as if he pricked me with a needle. He held the device for a couple more seconds before he released my hand. I looked at the finger and saw a small red dot where a needle pierce the skin. Oh, he collected a blood sample. Now I understand.

He inserted the pen-thing into one of the machines on his table and waited for several seconds until new data popped up on his screen. I silently waited in anticipation, hoping that nothing was wrong. After what seemed like hours he looked at me with a grim expression and sighed. "Anything else you want to tell me about?" he calmly asked.

Anything else? Let's see...well, I don't have a lot to tell. "I have asthma, I smoke, I drink sometimes, but nothing strong. And I have a sore back on cold mornings," I say it all quickly, wondering what was the matter. He gave me a gobsmacked look. What is that about? Is there something wrong?

"Asthma? Seriously?" he asks incredulously. "I haven't heard of anyone with asthma for the past thirty years," he explains when he saw my puzzled expression.

Thirty years? Wow. This kinda makes me feel special now. I'm probably the only person on the Citadel with asthma. Great.

"Well, the scans show some interesting things. One question though..." he pauses, looking directly into my eyes. "How are you still alive?"

I blink at that. "What?" I blurt out, utterly confused.

He sighs again. "First of all, you have asthma. With the basic gene therapy almost everyone goes through that should be impossible. In fact, scans show that you simply didn't have any of the standard gene therapy. Secondly, the blood test showed that you don't have vaccination against most common diseases. How you survived without catching anything serious is a mystery to me. You mind telling me how you ended up like this?"

It took me several seconds to digest all this. It then registered that he asked something. Commence plan number one: blame the parents. "Uh, my parents wanted me to...uh, grow naturally," I said in length, not sure if he would believe me or not.

He stared blankly at me for what seemed like forever before he sighed. "Kid, your parents are idiots," he said with finality. Hey, that's not nice of you. What the hell was I supposed to say? Sorry, but gene therapy didn't exist for me before I got here? Yeah, that would work. "How they allowed you to live like that...I will never understand. How old are you?" he continued.

"I'm twenty-one," I replied, rubbing the bridge of my nose. Damn, now he thinks my parents are idiots while they had nothing to do with this. It's quite uncomfortable for me.

"You're lucky. I can tell you that. This is exactly the reason why we're trying to pass a law that would make gene therapy mandatory," he ranted. "there's a 16% mortality percent for people who never went through gene therapy. You got off lucky with your asthma. And you actually smoke?" he added incredulously. "With asthma?"

"Uh, yeah. A lot of people do," I defended myself. Yeah, I pollute my lungs and for some reason, no one believes me that it actually helps me with my asthma. I didn't have an asthma attack for over a year now! The smoking helps dammit. I personally know several people with asthma who smoke.

"Not as much as you think," he said with a shrug. "On a side note, your nose is broken," he commented.

"Oh, really?" I said in monotone. Thanks Doc, I would never notice the crack in my nose bridge without you. It's not really my fault I was born with a big nose. It just make's a big target. I personally believe that it's quite tragic that from the three times I broke my nose two times happened because of an accident. My little brother had the bright idea of jumping onto my face when I was asleep. I never knew that so much blood could come out of a nose. "Gee, what would do without you Doc?"

Morrison actually snorted at that with a small shake of his head. "Open your mouth," he ordered.

I blinked in surprise and did as he asked. He leaned close and looked into my mouth through squinted eyes. "Did you ever visit the dentist?" he asked. "And what's up with that tooth?"

"Yeah, but quite a long time ago. Maybe five years," I replied. I kinda agreed with the people who told me that I should visit more often. I'm not really afraid of dentists but I'm a follower of 'If it doesn't hurt, nothing's wrong' ideal. Yes, it's extremely foolish but it's who I am. "And that tooth just grew like that," My right canine teeth kinda grew over another, so it sticks out a bit. Not exactly pretty, but manageable. I never got the courage to ask for the operation to fix it. The idea of someone cutting open mouth and shifting around bones made me very nervous.

"Wait...let me see that..." he muttered and ran his omni-tool over my jaw. A screen popped up and he read from them before he put up the most baffled expression I've seen on him so far. "Are those...are those dental fillings?" he asked incredulously. "We stopped using those over a century ago!"

I looked at him worriedly. The doctor was freaking out. Great going Alex, you broke the doctor who was supposed to treat you. That ought to give me a good reputation. "Uh, are you okay?"

"Where the hell did you live before you came here? Under a rock on Tuchanka?" he snapped.

Okay, I could sense an insult in there. What a rude doctor. I frown at him, wondering what would happen now. Morrison sighed loudly and took his seat back and started typing something into his computer. He rubbed his temples before he turned to face me. "Okay. I'll be honest with you. You're a medical disaster," he said with finality, leaving no room for argument.

Hey, I'll have you know that I'm somewhat healthy back home. A lot healthier than some people. Though admittedly he was the first doctor who actually made me feel like crap. "So what now?" I ask with a frown.

"You're lucky. Thankfully, we can fix up you to 100%. If it was up to me I would've charged your parents for neglect and attempted murder. Though personally I would've slapped some brains into their empty heads," Morrison spat out.

Wow. I really regret that I used Plan One now. I should've gone with Plan Two or Three. Blame the Alliance or blame the aliens. Though I'm not a racist and I actually like some of the aliens around here so I really should have went with Plan Two. Man, I'm an ass magnet. And not the good kind of ass magnet. Why is everyone I meet happens to be either excessively rude or just a plain ass? One of the mysteries of the universe, I guess.

"You can heal me?" I asked, slightly eager to hear a positive reply. Asthma sucked. When I was younger I actually liked to run around and play some sports. Now I cant run a freaking mile without being out of breath and practically suffocated. I'm actually looking forward to being able to do physically stressful things, much to my own surprise. I've gotten very lazy in the past years.

"Yes. We have a special program here in the hospital, called 'Rejuvenation'. To put it in simple terms, we will do a more thorough scan of your body and remove and repair any damage we can find. We will also add the proper vaccines to your body and fix up your teeth to proper health. The program is very popular and I can guarantee that after it you will have a 100% clean health bill. However...the program is quite expensive but luckily, you actually _need_ it to be healthy again and because of that, we are obliged to give you a 60% discount because of on it and-"

"How much?" I interrupted him. Halfway through his explanation I started grinning like an idiot. The chance to be fully healthy, without any shitty half-working lungs anymore? I simply _couldn't_ pass up this opportunity. I also get a 60% discount, which is a great incentive to agree.

"Let's see..." he typed a few stuff times into his keyboard and then turned the screen to my direction and I looked at the numbers.

200,000 Credits.

For some reason, I felt the urge to hate the Chairman again. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that this was the reason he gave me exactly the same sum. I also had the awful feeling that he must be laughing his ass off right now. The guy probably predicted this and gave me the exact amount of money that I will need. My dislike is bigger now, but at least he had the decency to pay my health bill.

"I'll take it," I tell the Doctor, who gives me an odd look, probably surprised I have that much money.

"Great. I will schedule it for later today. For now, go to the receptionist in the lobby and tell her you're the one who will be going through the operation today. She will take your account details and direct you to where you need to be until the operation. I'd advise you to stay in the hospital for now. Good luck and have a nice day. I will see you later, perhaps," Morrison said with a smile and a pat on the shoulder.

I gave him a thankful nod and left his office. I was feeling a bit numb all over. Getting back to full health with just a click of a button. Why didn't we have this back home? Oh yeah, our technology is still in it's diapers compared to this place. While I was a bit nervous at the mention of an operation I was still feeling ecstatic. If the place hadn't been so full of people who would see me, I would've started a victory dance right here and now. I think I'll just settle on a silent "Yeah!" while no one is looking. I go down the stairs to the receptionist and I cant help but grin like an idiot. By tomorrow, if everything will go right, I'll have my lungs back!

Now I just have an operation to go through and the idea of machines poking holes and me doing stuff in my body is not a very nice picture but I fully believe that it will be worth it.

Goodbye wheezing and cough. Sprinting for a mile, here I come!

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><p><strong>And this is it. <strong>**It's a bit longer than the last, which is not a bad thing really, so I'm not complaining.**

**As for the medical stuff...well, if they have the technology (admittedly expensive, reaching billions) to bring a piece of charred meat back to life, I honestly believe they have the technology to cure most, if not all, simple-moderate diseases. And yeah, here I went and made up one or another thing. Hopefully it wont make any problems. :P**

**So yeah, third chapter is complete and I broke the 10K word mark. Huzzah!** **Yeah, thanks to everyone for leaving a review and simply reading this. I really appreciate your support. I gladly take contructive criticism, but mostly I prefer your simple opinions, so dont be afraid to leave it here! Stalking from the shadows is creepy. :P**

**Thanks to: Lazarian, Catastros, vlad-the-unpaid, Hexagonal, amorac, SaiLena, TheRev28, Herr Wozzeck and iNf3ctioNZ for leaving a review and simply fav'ing and putting the story on your alert list! Thanks!**

**Delvaro out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again! Another incredibly fast update is here! Unfortunately, I'm sad to announce that my updates will be slower now, since the weekend is slower and I believe I'll be busy tenfold from now on. My workload is about to get much bigger, with the diploma work, the exams, ****preparation for another exam coming closer and closer, I'm afraid I wont have that much time to write. Not to mention that Mass Effect 3 is coming out soon (woo!) and I'm sure as hell not going to stop playing until I figure out all the mysteries of the game. Not to mention that my uncle will want to play it too and his PC is too shitty to handle it so I will have to evacuate it until he completes it. Yeah, the sad truth is painful. **

**However, I always make point to clear out my weekends (I gotta rest sometime, right?) so I will doubtlessly update the story during weekends. If I'm lucky I'll find some time to write during the week too, so dont fret!**

**Back to the story, this chapter is a bit shorter and I'm about to dabble in an area I've seen no SI writers try to get into. Hopefully you will like what I have in mind. Enjoy the chapter!**

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><p>I was lying in my hospital bed, fiddling with my omni-tool. I slept through the whole procedure and woke up in this room. They decided to leave me here for the night, just to be sure everything went fine. I didn't really mind actually, since I had nowhere to stay anyway. To my immense shock, the food they served here was actually good and the bad I was sleeping in was actually quite comfortable. Good food, good bed and even good company, if I could count the lovely nurse that came by from time to time.<p>

Since I had absolutely nothing to do and was pretty much forced to stay here for a whole day, I had only one thing to do: check out my omni-tool. God I love this thing. It could do so many things! I think I nearly died from shock when out of nowhere I found tetris installed on it. Who could expect _that_? Apparently its quite popular with the salarians, from what I've read on the extranet.

So yeah, since I woke up last night I was here, in this bed. I woke up, was told that everything went fine and that I will spend the night here. I went to sleep, woke up, was bored out of my mind, was less bored with my omni-tool and here I am now. I should be discharged in an hour or so, which I honestly am not looking forward to.

I have nowhere to go, simple as that. Sure I could get a hotel room, but what would I do until Shepard arrives? Apparently its a FemShepard, from what I've read on the extranet, with the spacer origin and the war hero profile. Oddly enough, its the same origin and profile I usually went with, but I don't mind. It's going to be interesting regardless.

Oddly enough, there was one thing bugging me. Ever since I woke up, I didn't feel the need to smoke a single cigarette. I know for a fact that I cant go without one for too long. When I asked about it, they told me they got rid of my addiction to the smoke-sticks since I wouldn't mind. And I didn't mind that at all. Honestly, I was stupid for even picking up that habit in the first place, especially as young as I was back then. Starting smoking in eighth grade was incredibly stupid of me, but all the 'cool' kids were smoking and really, what kid who just started junior high school wouldn't want to be cool? Started smoking for the image, got stuck with a shitty habit in return.

This also explains how come I practically seen no smokers so far. Maybe a handful of them in total. If you could just stop smoking without any problems, the manufacturers probably lost millions that way.

I didn't mind what they did. I couldn't drop smoking myself, and I tried. Now that I'm in full health I think I'll keep myself in top health from now on.

At least I found something to avoid being bored to death, like restoring my music list. I found a nice website where I could buy every song possible for a single credit. So far I wasted about fifty credits but I had a decent collection so far. I even downloaded some asari and turian music, since I was very curious. I was never one of those people who always carried with them over 3000 songs. I just take songs that I will listen to, simple as that.

The door slid open and lo and behold, Morrison entered the room. "I see that everything is going well," he remarked.

I scratched the bandage-thing on my nose. Apparently they fixed that too. How nice of them. Too bad that it itched for some reason. "Yep, just bored now," I replied, returning to my omni-tool surfing.

"Great. I'm happy to say that you're completely healthy. I think that everything is fine with you...how about we release you now?" he asked with a smirk.

I perked up at that and vigorously nodded. I'll do everything to get out of this place. I was dying from inactivity. "Hell yeah! Let's go!" I announced, hopping out of the bed and gathering my clothes.

"Great, just a second though..." he asked. With a quick yank he pulled off the bandage-thing off my nose. It didn't hurt, thankfully and I had to admit that it felt utterly awesome. I always had that problem where I could properly breath through my nose, as if it was clogged, but now it had no problem like that. It felt like a brand new nose to me. "Now, I'll wait for you outside."

I quickly pulled on all my clothes and discarded the clothes that the hospital gave me onto the bed and quickly joined Morrison. We silently walked for a few moments before he gave me a question that gave me pause. "What's with the fashion statement?" he asked, gesturing at my clothes.

"It's retro," I quickly reply. I was never into fashion or anything, I wore what was comfortable and what I liked.

"Aren't those clothes...you know, hot?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, inspecting my hat and warm jacket. "Where are you from anyway?"

I snorted. "Yeah. You wont believe how hot it was when I first arrived here. And I'm from Russia. You know, that cold place back on Earth?"

"I know where Russia is," he retorted with a frown. "It's just weird seeing someone wearing outdated clothes. That's all. So why are you here on the Citadel?" he asked.

I already put some thought into it. I needed a backstory that wouldn't arouse suspicion. And once I used a story, I had to stick with it. It wouldn't do if I gave everyone a different story. That was suspicious, and suspicious is something I didn't want to be. With the amount of dangerous people this galaxy had, like the Illusive Man or the Shadow Broker, I simply didn't want any attention from anyone related to them.

"I decided that I wanted to go my own way. You know, try my luck in the big galaxy. Came here to find work and all that, you know how it goes," I said casually, lying through my teeth. I doubt he would buy the 'I was kidnapped and dumped here to save the galaxy' story.

"Ah. I understand. We have a lot of those types here. Just be careful. Some of them end up in the wrong line of work, or just waste all their money gambling," he said with a chuckle.

Oh, how nice of him to worry about me. "Don't worry Doc, I don't plan on gambling anything. If anything, I think I'll find myself a safe and quiet job," I say with a small smirk. I doubt I can call what Shepard does 'safe and quiet' if I end up joining her.

"Good to know! Strangely enough, we doctors have no right to order patients around when they're finally healthy," he said with a lamenting sigh. I gave a laugh at that and promised I would try to be careful.

After that we quickly reached the reception area where they signed me out, asked me to never come back and wished me good luck. I parted with Morrison with a friendly handshake and thanked him for everything. Soon after that, I was out of the hospital and on my own.

* * *

><p>Okay, I'm officially lost. Well, not really. As Metallica's Unforgiven III said, how can I be lost if I've got nowhere to go? And this was my problem. What to do?<p>

The Citadel had no day or night, just a clock, which right now said that it was only early evening. I spent the last hour wandering aimlessly, looking for something that might give me something to do. I could always enter the first hotel I came upon, but it's not something I wanted to do. I needed something stable, or at least semi-stable. I needed to survive six months and I doubted I could do it with only twenty-thousand credits. Damn, I needed a job. Surprisingly, it was one of my common problems. Never could find a decent job.

As I was thinking about it I figured I needed to do something that would give me a good reason to join Shepard. It would be weird if I just popped out from nowhere and just join her team.

My first thought was C-Sec, since they had Garrus but I quickly dismissed them. For all I knew, I didn't even exist here. What if I get arrested because of that and thrown into custody? Secondly, I doubted they would just let me join them just like that. I had no training and my physical shape was abysmal as the Chairman said, and I couldn't do anything but agree. Besides, Garrus was a detective and I had a small fear that he would see right through me. Then again, the game never showed me any of his detective skills but I decided not to risk it. He did solve that case with the murdering elcor and nearly caught Dr. Saleon after all.

I could always try to get a job at the human embassy. That way I will surely meet Shepard, since in the game she frequents the place quite a lot. But that option created two main problems. The first one was Udina, who happened to be an asshole and the second one was me working in the embassy. I loathed politics and I had to wonder why would Shepard take someone from the embassy to a life-threatening mission. The answer would be no, obviously.

There was always the alliance, but then I would never meet Shepard. They would probably ship me to some distant planet so that idea went out of the window.

I needed to stay on the Citadel and do something productive, as well as be near places that Shepard would be at in six months. Weapon practice seemed an easy thing to do, since for some reason there were a lot of weapon vendors around. Buying some cheap gun to learn how to shoot was something easy to do. Maybe there was a shooting range somewhere around here. The Citadel was big and I have no idea what else is on it. I could see exploration in the future.

At the moment...I had no idea where I was and decided that I should go somewhere more...familiar. I opened the map and traced the area I wanted to go to. Oh, great, it was in anther ward. I glanced to the other side of the street, where the transportation terminal lay, beckoning me to approach with it's evil orange glow. I mentally groaned and sealed my fate, walking over to the hellish invention.

* * *

><p>One Hell-Car ride later I was in the familiar area of the markets from Mass Effect. It was bustling with shoppers or just people who were passing by. I casually strolled through the area, quite aimlessly and lost in thoughts. I needed to find a job, simple as that. Unfortunately, it was harder than it looks.<p>

I didn't have any fancy education or any other skills that could help me. My machinery knowledge was outdated by a century and a half. I didn't want to be a clerk, that was boring and I tried it already. Wasn't my thing.

As I passed by a volus trader I stopped in my tracks, suddenly remembering what I wanted to do earlier. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a 100 Rubles bill. In my time, it wasn't worth much outside of Russia. It was worth around three dollars, more or less. I approached the volus and leaned on his counter. "Hey, how much do you think this might be worth?" I asked with a grin, waving the bill in front of his eyes.

"Is that...paper money?" he asked curiously. I gave him a big nod, still smiling. The volus took the bill and inspected it before he paused, looking at the print date of the bill, which happened to be 1997. "This is impressive. Nearly two hundred years old and in a quite good condition," he evaluated the piece of paper. He looked at me and took a breath. "I want it."

My grin became even wider. "How much do you offer?" I asked. There was one flaw in my plan but it could be overlooked easily. I had no idea what was the real value of the bill I was offering. For all I knew it could be worth a million credits!

"Five thousand," the volus said with finality. Okay, maybe not a million but five thousand was good enough. A lot more than it was originally worth.

"Deal," I agreed. The volus took the bill and placed it somewhere safe behind his counter and pressed something on his terminal. A moment later my omni-tool pinged, letting me know that I received some money. "It was nice having business with you," I said and quickly left the volus alone. Hah! I always wanted to say that.

I walked over to the edge of the street and leaned against the railing overlooking the rest of the Citadel. I just had to admit that it was incredibly weird walking around in this place, especially since it was shown in the game. As I already concluded, the games did the place no justice. In the games it was pixels and NPC, but here...Its real and the people around here are real too. In the game they just stood around and did pretty much nothing. Here I could just watch an area for five minutes and see at least twenty different people doing different stuff. The view itself was breathtaking.

Lights from the other streets and buildings shinning like little stars in the distance. Above I could see several ships floating in constant vigilance. The Destiny Ascension was lazily floating, doing whatever it was doing there. Flying cars zipped by, disappearing from view before I could make out any details. I could describe the scenery it in one word: beautiful.

But I still had to find something to do. I probably wasted about an hour just aimlessly walking around. I decided that it was time for plan B. Ask around. I walked up to one of the vendors, this one being a bald human. "Anything I can help you with?" he asked politely, though I could see a glint of suspicion in his eyes, probably from my clothes. Damn, I think I should go shopping for new clothes soon. Or at least dump the jacket.

"Uh, yeah, kinda. I'm looking for a job. Know of anyone that's hiring?" I asked, hoping that he will help. I wasn't buying anything and technically I was wasting his time.

The bald guy put on a thoughtful look. "Hmm, anything in particular?" he asked.

I thought about it. "As long as they pay and it's around this area," I said with a shrug.

"Well, lets see...last I heard a new shop opened a floor below us, so I think they might be hiring," he said thoughtfully. I frowned at the thought of sitting in a shop all day long. "And I know for sure that one of the bouncers in Chora's Den broke his arm a couple of days ago so they're hiring a replacement for now, but..." he gave me a look, obviously checking me out. "I'm not sure you'd want that kind of job. You don't look to be the type."

Chora's Den! I knew I was forgetting something. Then again, the place is shady as hell and there is Fist, who works for the Shadow Broker. But on the other hand, Shepard goes to the place more than once, actually she wreck the place but that's not the point. The merchant's last word registered and I gave myself a look. Well, he was kinda right. I didn't really look bouncer material. I was slim and I didn't have that much muscle on me. Plus, I was damn short! Half of the people here were taller than me.

"Tell me about that job in the bar," I asked, visibly surprising the merchant.

"You want to work there?" he asked doubtfully but then shrugged. "whatever, it's your business. I don't know much about the job, just that one of the guys broke his arm. I think that it's a temporary job until the guy heals but I'm not sure. You can go ask them yourself."

"I'll do that, thanks for the help," I thanked him with a nod and quickly made my way to Chora's Den.

I wasn't sure if the bouncer job was for me but I was sure that I could handle it. I was not much of a fighter in the sense of getting into fights but whenever I actually did get into a fight, I believe I wasn't actually that bad. And there was that one that I knocked out a guy with only a single punch. Then again, that guy had a glass jaw and everyone could knock him out with a single blow, so I wasn't sure it counted. I guess the three years I spent on boxing training paid off, somewhat.

As for the job itself, I doubted it's going to be anything hard. It's a club, with alcohol. The most I'd probably have to do is throw out some drunk troublemaker or two and drunk people are known to be bad fighters. Sure, the club belonged to Fist but I'm not actually joining his gang or anything so I doubt I'll be doing anything shady like selling red sand around. This also seemed like a good place to wait for Shepard. Maybe I'll even manage to save Tali the trouble of getting into that ambush! My brain was already developing plans by the time I remind myself that I don't have the job yet. They just might tell me to get the hell out and never come back.

I go down to the lower level and continue to the alley that would take me to the club. When I finally reach that bridge-thing in front of the club muffled techno music reaches my ears. Oh god. I forgot about _that_ tiny detail. It's exactly the same song that plays in the game. I really hope that this song is not the only thing they play here. I'd go insane or go on a killing spree if the only thing they play is this damn techno song. I don't mind it that much, but playing it 24/7 should be a crime with a death penalty. I dont like techno that much anyway.

I cross the bridge and slowly walk towards the club entrance. Several steps away from the door I stop and take a deep breath. Here I go. I'm about to venture into a place that might drastically change my future. If everything will work as I plan it to, in six months, I will meet Shepard. Hopefully I wont get killed by that time, since I heard of the club's reputation.

I take another deep breath and take the first step into the club as soon as the door opens for me and the loud techno hits my ears.

Ugh! Correction: Hopefully Shepard will get here before the _music_ kills me.

* * *

><p><strong>Yay, another chapter done! This one was quite shorter than the last one but I guess its enough. Next chapter is going to be interesting, I can tell ya that.<strong>

**So, Chora's Den. Yep, I'm really going there. I simply havent seen any SI writers even consider that option. And if some did think of that, I simply havent read their story, yet. :P It's also logically the place that Shepard frequents the most, other than the presidium. I mean, Shepard goes there twice, wrecks the place and even kills the owner and then comes back again to solve some side-quests if there was no time to do that the first time around.**

**So yeah. Another chapter is complete and I'm already working on a new one since I'm epically bored and have nothing to do for the next...*glances at clock* two hours. Maybe I'll get lucky and actually finish it, who knows. **

**Again, I want to thank everyone for their support of this story. I cant believe that the amount of people who fav it and place it on their alert list, and even review, is only growing. I dont think I even have enough space here to write everyone so I decided simply not to do it. I know who loved the story, you know who loved it, so it's enough for now. Thank you everyone!**

**Don't forget to tell me what you thought of this chapter or the story as a whole! It would make my day, really. Thanks again and until next time, Delvaro Out.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Haha! Told you I'd manage to finish the chapter for this week soon enough. I have semi-good/bad news. Since my left lung feels like it gets stabbed by a vibroblade whenever I take a deep breath, I decided to take myself a small vacation. Not to say that I wont be busy this week, since I kinda will be, but I might get a new chapter ready sooner than later. Woohoo!**

**Yeah, this chapter is longer than any chapter before. This makes me slightly happier. Lets me know I have more content to write. So, without any more delays, here is the newest chapter!**

**On a slightly unrelated note, I think I'll start naming my chapter after the next upload. Dunno, I just feel like that having 'Chapter One' and so on is kinda boring, though I know that some dont find it bothering at all. Tell me what you think? :P  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Okay, My plan failed way too fast. Unfortunately, when I was constructing it, I forgot to include the various distractions that would utterly ruin my concentration and eventually my plan.<p>

It all started as soon as I entered the place. I managed to make two steps before I had to jump back to avoid getting hit by a flying man. I managed to avoid collision but I was still shocked. The drunk guy, judging by the potent smell that was coming from him, groaned loudly and rolled a bit in place, slurring something that sounded like 'bastard'. Before I could do anything else I was shoved aside by a sentient brick wall, or more commonly called krogan.

This was the first krogan I saw and I had only one thing to say about it: big. He wasn't that tall, more like he was being very, very wide. The aura he was giving off, the particular 'I'm pissed off and god help you if you piss me off further' aura, was giving me the chills.

The krogan rolled the drunk man onto his stomach and roughly picked him up by the scruff of his shirt. Then he proceeded to lift him off as if he didn't weight anything and carry him to the door, where he unceremoniously tossed him out. Okay, this definitely goes to the 'Why you shouldn't piss of krogans' list in the back of my head.

As the krogan was returning he noticed me staring at him. He paused, pretty much shoved his face into mine and sneered. "Don't make any trouble, and I wont throw you out," he growled at me before he walked away, leaving me alone in my terrified state.

If I hadn't known any better, I would say I just pissed myself.

Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Great, now I lost all my built up confidence and I'm scared shitless of the krogan, who is staring at me from the corner of the room. Maybe...maybe I should get a drink first? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

That was when distraction number two and three came into play.

I approached the bar and took an empty stool. I nervously sat there for several minutes, hoping the krogan would stop staring at me, until the barmaid finally approached me. "What can I get you?"

I think I'll go with something light, I don't want to try this completely drunk and I think the krogan bouncer just waits until I get drunker than tipsy. "I'd like a beer," I say with a small smile. She returned the smile and told me she'd be back right away.

So I sat there, waiting for my beer, looking around at anything but the krogan. At one point I looked up and gaped a bit. Right above me was one of the asari dancers and she was affording me a really good view. I just couldn't help it. I stared. I think that at some point I tilted my head to the side for some reason. I didn't know that asari, or any living being could bend like that. Must be a hell to the spine. It didn't really look like dance in my opinion just a bunch of enticing, sensual movements around a pole...not that it was a bad thing. I happened to be liking what I was seeing. The sound of someone clearing their throat brought me out of my trance. I looked down and saw the barmaid giving me a very amused look, a glass of beer already on the counter in front of me.

I gave her a sheepish smile and a shrug and grabbed my glass to give it a taste. The beer was surprisingly good. Perfect temperature and good taste. At some point I returned to stare at the asari dancer above me, though I'm not sure when exactly it happened.

I'm not exactly sure how long I sat like that but I know that by the time I finally tore my eyes off the dancer I noticed that I ran out of beer, my glass was already gone and the club was fuller than before. Oh, and the krogan stopped staring at me. The beer must've been very good since I was feeling a bit lightheaded. Nothing close to being drunk Now I officially had a reason to do something stupid.

I waited until the barmaid passed by and stopped her. "Another beer?" she asked.

"Uh, no. I'm here about the job! I heard you need a bouncer!" I called over the loud music, which was thankfully a different song, which somewhat made me less annoyed.

She slowly rose an eyebrow at me as she looked me over. "No offense, but you don't look like bouncer material," she said back, with a tiny smirk.

Oh man, was it because of my height? I know I'm a bit short but that doesn't mean I cant be intimidating. Okay, it makes it incredibly harder to intimidate someone when practically everyone is looking down on you but I'm freaking average! 172Cm is an average height for a human being! I even grew taller by two centimeters last year! I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet...or I simply missed it. You never know.

"Are you the one hiring?" I asked and she shook her head. "Then I'll let the one who is hiring to decide whether I'm good for the job or not," I say nonchalantly. Who was she to say that I couldn't do this job? She was just a barmaid to begin with, which is admittedly not a very respected job...unless she could do all those awesome tricks with bottles and glasses that I've seen some barmen do. That's just awesome and people who can do it deserve respect.

"Whatever. I just don't think they'd hire someone who looks like an utter wimp," she said with the same tone and a shrug.

Ouch. Damn, she got me there. I cant find a good comeback. While I'm not just skin and bones, I'm not exactly buff either. I have some muscle on me, mostly from minor workout but it's nothing impressive. The best way to describe me would be...athletic, only without the athletics involved.

Well, I just had to say something back. "Looks can be deceiving," I said cryptically. Hah, I wanted to say that for a long time, just never had a good reason.

"Yeah, you don't look that much, but you might break your hand if you punch anything," she remarked with a smug smirk.

Oh, now she's out to get me. What the hell did I do to her anyway? I'm kinda starting to like her. I'm usually awful when I talk with girls, having nothing interesting to say, other than the weather. Considering the Citadel had no weather to begin with, I don't have much to talk about. "I'm Alex," I introduced myself, smiling slightly.

"Lucy," came her curt response. I had to admit that she didn't look that bad. Actually, she looked quite handsome, even with the shitty lighting in this place. She had a smooth, unblemished skin, thin eyebrows and full lips, which were currently set into a small smirk. Her shoulder-length blond hair was tied into a small ponytail.

"So," I leaned on the counter. "What did I do to earn your feminine wrath?" I asked, honestly curious. It's not everyday that I buy a drink and get verbally destroyed by the barmaid after all.

"Nothing. It's just some built-up stress coming from working weeks in a place where I serve drinks to drunk idiots who do nothing but ogle at my breasts," she replied with a shrug, surprising me slightly. I wasn't sure how to feel. This was the first time I was playing the role of a stress reliever. Lucy then gave me a sly smirk. "At least you had the decency to look while I wasn't watching," she said in a casual tone.

I looked away, both in embarrassment and slight fear. I admit that I sneaked in a few glances whenever she wasn't – or so I thought – looking. These form-fitting suits, if I could call it that, were really...form-fitting. I'm not a pervert or anything but this is the first time I saw anyone wearing something like this.

"So you find a random guy and...relieve your stress on them every few weeks?" I ask.

"Not really. You're actually the first one," she answered with a chuckle.

"Oh, wow. I'm feeling honored and special," I say in monotone, causing her to snort in laughter. "So, who do I need to talk with about the job?"

"And this leads us back to our initial issue. You don't look like bouncer material," she repeated.

"So? I still need the money and this job looks not boring enough for me. Who wants to be a store clerk or even worse, working in the embassies?" I would've listed off more jobs that I found to be excessively boring, but I didn't have all day.

"Fair enough, it's your life. Go talk with the krogan," Lucy said, pointing at the krogan bouncer. I followed her finger with a growing expression of pure horror. From all I learned about this universe, krogans respected power and sadly enough, I didn't exactly radiate 'power' wherever I walked by. My thought process was interrupted by Lucy's laughter. "Just kidding," she said, making me loudly sigh in relief. "Just wait here, I'll be back in a minute."

And with that I was left alone, feeling extremely relieved. I was in this place for only a single day and I simply wasn't ready to chat with the big scary krogan in the corner yet. If he was friendly, maybe, but this krogan bouncer didn't look anywhere close to the definition of nice.

About a minute later Lucy came back and told me that I'd have someone to talk with in a moment and then she returned to serve the other customers. I kept sitting and looking around, hoping to see someone familiar. Maybe Fist is coming to talk with me? Then again, I don't really remember how he looked, only vaguely. After all, I saw him for around 20 seconds before Wrex shot him. Not much of an impression if you ask me.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone approaching me from behind. I spun around in my seat and came face to face with a turian. He was a bit taller than me, maybe by a couple of inches and he had this cool white face paint. He wore black clothing and he was currently looking at me with calculating eyes...which quickly turned into a moderate glare.

Okay, I give up. I think I should stop being surprised every time a turian glares at me. I've been here for only a single day and how many times I got glared at by a turian? Four times? Three? I'm not really sure.

The turian jerked his head, a gesture to follow him. I silently got up and followed him to one of the side table, where a small group was already waiting for us, consisting of a human and another turian. There was an empty seat in front of the turian, who looked somewhat familiar to me for some reason. The turian I was following gestured at the empty seat and I worriedly sat down.

For some awful reason I was suddenly reminded of the various mob movies I watched and got the feeling that any moment now one of these guys would press a gun to my forehead and demand to know who I work for.

"You want the job?" the second turian asked. Man, even his voice was familiar but I couldn't find from where!

"Uh, yeah. That's why I came here," I hesitantly replied. That was a somewhat dumb question I had to say.

"Alright. Who are you? And why you want to work here?" he asked, sending a glance to the first turian, who was standing right behind me, to the annoyance of my already panicking imagination.

"Alex ********** and I want to work here because this job sounds interesting," I answered earnestly. I couldn't exactly tell them that I wanted to work here until the woman who is destined to save the galaxy would come to wreck the bar so I could join her. That just sounds silly. "I arrived to this place yesterday to find a job and all that. You know, try my luck in the big world. I think that working in the club is a lot more interesting than working in a store or an office."

I heard a ping behind me and looked up to see the turian reading something from his omni-tool. A moment later he glanced at me before he looked back at the apparent leader of the bunch. "He's clean," he spoke for the first time with his flanging voice.

What? They were checking out my files? And I turned clean? What the hell? How can I be 'clean' if I don't have a file to begin with? I didn't even exist here until a day ago...or I did? Was there another version of me running around? What if he's rich and very famous? What if he's my evil twin and now he has an evil moon base with a giant cannon in it? Or maybe a high-ranking officer in Cerberus? Okay, I'm getting _way_ overboard with my imagination. If I had a file somewhere, it meant I needed to see it for myself, see just what made me 'clean'.

The leader activated his own omni-tool and started to read the file, which probably belonged to me...or the 'me' of this universe. By the nine hells, I'm confused. "Let's see...twenty-one years old, finished your human education program, then did a couple of random jobs..." he read off, glancing at me between a few words, probably to see my reaction.

Well, a reaction it was. Kinda. This wasn't my history, mostly. I was actually still studying back home and was planning to go to the university after that. I worked in several jobs before I finished my schooling...Okay, something weird was going on here. I had another problem though, judging by the expectant stare I was getting. Okay, I needed a proper response...

"Where did you get all that?" I asked, adding a small hint of surprise into my voice. Hopefully my acting skills were up to par.

"We have our means kid," the human spoke. I gave him a good look. He was looking to be around his late thirties, with a few wrinkles here and there eon his face. He had a buzz cut, had a few small scars on his head and I took note that his nose appeared to be broken several times in the past, judging by it's shape. The clothes he wore happened to be the ones I've seen all Fist's men wear in the game, though my memory isn't that fresh. "Trust me, if we want to find something out, we can find out whatever we want."

Oh yeah, Fist was working for the Shadow Broker after all. I guess it came with perks, like finding out stuff that shouldn't be found.

"Alright..." I draw out the words. "So do I get the job?"

They exchanged glances before the leader looked back at me. "I'll be honest with you. I honestly don't think you can handle this job. First of all, it looks like one punch is enough to drop you. We need someone reliable that would actually stop fights before they happen. For that, we need someone intimidating, like our big friend over there," he jabbed his thumb at the krogan bouncer. I could easily see the logic in his words. "So tell me, why should we hire you?"

Shit. This was the part that I feared. I needed to give them a reason to hire me, an incredibly solid argument that will leave them no doubt that they _needed_ to hire me. "I can throw a good punch," I blurt out. Okay, that was a shitty argument. Half of the people in this club could throw a good punch. The unimpressed looks I got confirmed my thoughts. Yeah, I definitely needed a better argument.

"Look, I know I'm not anything special but I can do this job. I mean, the most I'll have to do is either stop the fights from happening or stop them after they happen. It shouldn't be hard," After all, most of the combatants would be drunk anyway. "Besides, I think I can actually make them leave nicely, instead of break their bones like your big friend over there. Really, how many time have your big friend broke stuff like tables, glasses and patrons?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Oh yeah, I was totally playing the property damage card. "And what about all the people he injures? No doubt they complain to C-sec, or come back to whine, right?" Oh, and now I was throwing in C-sec into the mix. The trio exchanged glances, seemingly evaluating their options. "With me you can avoid most of the mess," I added.

"Well, we can give him a chance, right? It's a temporary job anyway," the human remarked. The leader looked at the black-clad turian, who gave a shrug in return.

"Alright, I guess we can take you for now but I believe we need to see if you can handle this job. A little test, so to say," the leader said, crossing his fingers and leaning on the small table in front of us.

Oh, now they're going to send me on a quest to prove them my worth. Great. "A test? What's it gonna be? Do I need to go to your house and clear out the giant rats?" I ask. The two turians give me baffled looks but the human snorts, attempting but failing to hide his laughter. Yay, someone got my reference with the giant rats!

"Rats?" the leader mutters before he shakes his head. "I don't know what you're talking about, but what I had in mind is a trial night. The night is only starting and the club is going to be fuller as it goes. If you can do the job tonight, we will consider hiring you. If you fail, you can forget about the job," he explained.

I considered this and found it acceptable. They pretty much put me on trial for now to see how I work. "Sure, I accept your terms," I say with a firm nod. Damn, I'm spouting lines that I always wanted to say left and right here! If this keeps up I might run out of lines to say!

"Good. Jorrun will explain everything to you," he said, gesturing a the turian behind me. With that, he and the human stood up and left without another word, though the human gave me an amused look and a nod before he left, leaving me alone with Jorrun.

"Come on," he said with a tired tone, starting to walk away. I hurriedly stood up and caught up with him, walking slightly behind him. "I'll explain everything quickly. We have three main rules: no drinking on the job. If someone starts trouble, you throw them out. If someone strips and then starts trouble, laugh a bit, take picture and _then_ throw him out," he says with a small twitch of his mandible.

The last one surprised me quite a bit. "Why would I need to take pictures?" I ask, both surprised at what he was asking of me and the fact that my omni-tool apparently had a camera.

Jorrun makes an odd sound that sounded like a snort. "Last time someone lost their clothes and we threw him out, he came back the next day with C-sec, blaming us for drugging him and all that. After that we decided to take pictures," he explained. I gave him an odd look. "Blackmail," he said exasperatedly. Ah, I get it now. "Say you got the pictures. He complains and they end up all over the extranet. Of course, we could do a lot worse than simple embarrassment, but it's too complicated."

We stop in one of the dark corners of the club where Jorrun simply leaned against the wall and silently watched the area. "I'm gonna do the first troublemaker, just to show you how it's done. After that, you're on your own. I'm still gonna be here, since we don't want you to suffer too much."

Gee, thanks. He really has no faith in me. Then again, we know each other for only ten minutes. "Mind if I ask something?" I ask, wanting an answer for a question that was bugging me.

"Sure, go ahead," he says with a shrug.

"Why do you need so many bouncers? I mean, you have the krogan over there...and you, and that other guy with the broken arm that I'm replacing," I point out.

"Well, Gormul, the krogan, is more like a guard for Fist, who is our boss. As for why there are so many of us...do you expect me to work here all week long? This was supposed to be Mickey's shift and instead I have to waste my days off and look after you, so don't take it personally if I don't like you," he said with another annoyed twitch.

Oh, that makes sense. On both accounts. I now understand why Jorrun looked so pissed off and why there were so many bouncers around. The korgan, Gormul was probably Fist's private bodyguard or something. "Hey, I don't blame you. I'd be pissed off too if I had to work on my day off," I remark, hoping to light up the mood. Hey, if I get accepted it'd be nice to have someone who was actually pleasant to talk with.

"Yeah. Hopefully you get this job. I'm tired of filling in for Mickey so don't screw this up," he said with a short growl at the end. Okay, now I probably had more riding on this than before. If I don't get the job, Jorrun will be pissed that he must waste more of his days off. Great.

And that's how the rest of the night continued. We just stood in the corner, looking around the club for troublemakers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked, nothing happened so far. So I wasted my and Jorrun's time by asking questions, some of the pointless, some of them not so. Jorrun answered most of them with a single-word answer, though sometimes I actually managed to get him to talk. When I asked what was the most interesting night he had here he told me how a pair of krogans got drunk and started fighting each other. Apparently no one came out unscathed and at some point in the fight bullets started flying and biotics flared. It was total chaos. I had to point out that Jorrun was telling me this with a fond voice and misty eyes, as if it was the best moment of his life. He agreed with my assessment. I decided that he was crazy, though I didn't say it out loud.

I got the feeling that the turian simply didn't trust strangers, which was a smart thing to do, as far as I was concerned. From time to time he would tell me something animatedly, if it happened to interest him and other times he would be guarded, sticking to one-word answers.

"Alright, check this out," Jorrun interrupted my thoughts, or more accurately me staring at asari dancers. "Less attention to the dancers, more attention to the bar," he chided, though I could detect some amusement in his voice. I did as he was told and noticed what appeared to be a human guy yelling at a turian who was sitting next to him. From the amount of hand gestures and the fact that I could see a vain popping on the guy's forehead from this distance, I concluded that the human was mad about something. "See that guy? Good. Now watch what I'm going to do and take notes."

I made a point by opening my omni-tool, opening a text file and looked at Jorrun with anticipation. He snorted at the sight and quickly walked over to the bar. I eagerly watched the scene, hoping to learn something new.

Jorrun walked over to the angry guy, apparently said something. The human rounded on Jorrun and started yelling at him, though I couldn't hear a word. Jorrun simply point at the exit and said something else. The human then shoved Jorrun and I quickly realized it was a major mistake, though I pretty much missed everything. It just happened to fast, but I understood the gist of it. The human shoved Jorrun, or tried to, but Jorrun quickly grabbed the human's arm and pulled him with a powerful yank...right into his elbow. The human staggered back with a bloody nose, yelling so loud that I almost could hear what he was screaming. Jorrun, being the epitome of calm, simply grabbed him by the neck and dragged/carried him to the exit, where he tossed the guy out.

I could just stare at the turian with a slightly open mouth. That was just awesome. It happened too fast! Much too fast for the guy to even react. Jorrun approached me with a smug look on his face, though I couldn't be sure. I wasn't that knowledgeable in turian face expressions, in fact I barely knew a thing, but if I was him, I'd be smug.

"That...was awesome," I remarked as he was within earshot.

"Thank you, thank you. I'm here four times a week, visit again," he said with a chuckle. Wow, he had a sense of humor! What a pleasant surprise. "Glad you saw it. You basically need to follow two rules. One, if they refuse to go out, throw them out. And Two, if they refuse to be thrown out, throw them out anyway, with excessive violence."

Okay, it seems like an easy concept to understand. I might not be that smart but I'll have to be an idiot to not understand this. I give him a firm nod. "Okay, got it."

"Good. Next one's yours," Jorrun said with a weird tone. I'm not sure what it was, but I had a feeling an evil cackle would fit right in with the guy.

Next guy is mine. For some reason I was somewhat hoping that there wont be next guy. I'm not really afraid or anything, nervous but not afraid. I just wasn't someone who was actively looking for a fight. In fact, I hated conflict! That didn't mean I wouldn't defend myself.

I had no idea how long we were standing here and waiting but when I finally opened the omni-tool to check out the time I was slightly surprised that it was already well past midnight. Around two actually and the club was still full. It took me some time to realize that the time moved here differently too. An hour wasn't sixty minutes like back on Earth, but one-hundred. So technically, it was around early morning in my inner clock, which somewhat explained why I was feeling already tired. Though it was probably from standing in one place for so long.

Before I know it, Jorrun taps my shoulder and jabs his thumb at the bar. I follow the gesture and see another human guy holding one of the barmaids by her hand. The girl obviously didn't want to be anywhere near the guy and was trying to pull herself free, though it didnt do anything. The guy was saying something and I could see his large grin even from the other side of the room. "Come on, show me your 'diplomatic approach'," Jorrun said mockingly, even doing one-fingered air-quotes. Wow, you have a lot of faith in me, I really appreciate it.

Without another glance to the turian I leave him alone and walk over to the bar. With each step I made that drew me closer to the guy I could feel my guy start beating faster and faster, almost as if it was going to jump into my throat any minute now. Yeah, I kind of forgot to mention that the last time I was in a fight happened to be in 2005, which was...seven years ago. Wow, I actually consider it a personal record. Seven years without a fight. Damn, I hope the guy listens to me and leaves without a fight.

I finally made it to the guy and stopped behind him, trying to think about what to do, running scenario's through my head but a single action made me stop. The barmaid sent me a pleading look. Okay, I cant just leave a girl who actually asked me to help. Wow, this situation just got upgraded into saving a damsel in distress, though I'm not sure how much of a damsel a barmaid is.

I don't bother trying to listen to what the guy is saying and I simply tap him on the shoulder. He glances back at me and raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"Sir, I'll have to ask you to leave, now," I say, trying to be polite and professional, though I have no idea if I actually made any impression.

The guy let go of the girl and fully turned to me. Okay, maybe this plan was a bad idea. The guy was taller than me by a couple of inches. He was also obviously drunk, if his slightly unfocused gaze was any indication. "Say what now?" he asked, leaning forward and squinting at me, as if he couldn't see me right.

"Stop harassing the barmaid and leave the place," I say with a frown.

Huh, he actually looks surprised at that. "I'm harassing her? No way. Did I harass you?" he asks, looking back to see the barmaid already gone. This makes him look utterly confused and me break a small smile. Serves him right for harassing people while being this drunk. "You..." he turned back to me, looking ready to kill me. His face was red and he had murder in his eyes. "You made her go away!"

Oh crap, this didn't work as I thought it would. Without any warning he swung his first at me. It wasn't fast or very accurate, more like slow and sluggish but it was sudden.

Whoa! I really wasn't expecting that. I didn't have any time to do anything but lean back to avoid the blow, though I didn't even manage to dodge fully. I felt his fist clip just the tip of my chin and it was enough to slightly move my head to the side.

It was like someone pulled a trigger in me. One moment I was afraid of this fight and the next I wanted to kick this guy's ass. My heart was still beating in my ears and the music around us was muffled. Almost like in slow motion I saw him swing his other arm, aiming for my head again. I did the first thing that came to my head. I ducked down, allowing his fist to sail above me and swung my own fist with every bit of force I had.

My fist sunk into his stomach, stopping his attack in mid air. He jumped back a step, coughing and holding his stomach. I take a worried step back and stare at him as he coughed and coughed. The drunk guy then fell to his knees and vomited on the floor, eliciting disgusted sounds from all the patrons who were watching.

Oh shit, oh shit! I didn't want _this_ to happen! Oh god, is he okay? I hope I didn't do any permanent damage. Holy shit! I just punched someone hard enough to make him throw up!

I heard flanging laughter behind me and someone pat me roughly on the shoulder. "That wasn't that bad. I'd give it a six out of ten, 'cause I saw him clip you with the first blow, so you lose points for that," I heard Jorrun say. "Though I recall you saying something about you not going to beat up our clients like our krogan. At least _he_ didn't make anyone throw up," the turian added with a chuckle.

"I – uh – think...ugh," I tried to say but didn't have a clue to what I was trying to say. What I was going to say? That I didn't mean to punch the guy to the point of throwing up? Not a chance, this would probably make me sound like a sissy. So I settled on stuttering like a moron.

"So much for 'diplomatic approach', eh?" he snickered. "Alright, enough staring. Finish the job and throw him out," he gave me another rough pat on the shoulder and left me alone with the still-coughing guy I punched out.

I swallowed down the sudden dryness in my throat and slowly walked over to the poor guy. I lifted him up swung his arm over my shoulder and started walking-dragging him to the exit. Damn, he was heavies than I thought. I finally reached the exit with a sigh of relief and paused there when I tried to figure out what to do. Man, I kinda felt bad for this. I dropped the guy to the floor, making sure he wouldn't hit his head and then walked back to the club.

I wasn't exactly sure what to feel but I could easily recognize two feelings. The first one was pride, since I was kinda proud that I actually incapacitated someone with one hit. The fact that the guy was quite drunk did not diminish the damn good feeling I was getting. The second one was an odd guilt, most probably from the fact that I just the poor guy so hard I made him throw up. The other stuff I was feeling was probably adrenaline or whatever else I had in my body at the moment.

With a tired sigh I walk back to Jorrun, who was standing at the same dark corner...though I couldn't really call it corner since the place was somewhat...round. However, before I could reach him I was stopped by a feminine cry. I looked at the source of the voice and saw the girl I just 'rescued'.

"Hey! Thanks...you know, for getting rid of that guy," the barmaid said. Huh, she was very familiar...that hair and that voice...holy crap! It's Jenna! The C-Sec informant that Shepard helps in one of the side-quests. I totally forgot about her. I guess I shouldn't talk with her about C-Sec, wouldn't want to get her killed or anything.

"No problem. Glad I could help," I say back and flash a small smile before I leave her to do her job.

"I'm glad to know you can handle yourself. You don't look like it," Jorrun remarked when I came back. Oh come on! Would everyone I meet was going to say I looked like a wimp? This was really getting tiresome.

"Oh just shut up," I shoot back. "I can handle myself and how I look doesn't matter in the slightest," I say chidingly.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Jorrun replies in an uninterested manner.

And so it went. After I actually proved I can somewhat do this job Jorrun somewhat...warmed up to me? I'm not sure I could call it like that. He just became more talkative, but not by much. I found that I actually kinda liked him. He gave some good advice.

Apparently time flew by when you were busy. Fortunately, I didn't have to punch another guy and the troublemaker I had to deal with agreed to leave without a fight. Apparently he watched me beat up the last guy and didn't want to throw up. Oh god, no one was going to forget that any time soon. I just knew that. Before I knew it, the club is nearly empty, the music is not as loud and I'm sitting at the bar, drinking another beer and waiting for Jorrun to return. My job was officially finished and all I had to do was hear the verdict from Jorrun, who was coming back.

He took the seat next to me and ordered his own brew, though I'm not sure what it was. I guessed it was turian beer or something. "You're in," he said simply, taking a sip from his glass. "Don't get excited yet. This was just one night and it might have been simple luck."

"I don't need luck...most of the time," I say smugly. It was probably the beer, but I was feeling a bit awesome with myself. No complaints from me.

"Whatever you say. You've got the job, for now. This doesn't mean that you should run around the place and introduce yourself to everyone. No one really cares about you and as far as you're concerned, your name is 'Hey you' until further notice. You do your job and everyone is happy. Are we clear?" Jorrun asks seriously.

I give him a nod. "Yep, got it loud and clear."

"Good. You're starting tomorrow at ten. Come an hour earlier so you could get whatever you need for the job. See you later," he got up from his stool and walked away.

"Good night!" I called after him, though he didn't offer me any response. Well, you cant get everything you want. At least I now know a half-friendly turian. I gulp down what remained of my beer, said my farewells to the barmaid who's name I didn't know and made my way to the exit.

I wear a pleasant smile as I walk out of Chora's Den and make my way to the lower markets. I was feeling quite good. I now had a job. I had something to do until Shepard arrives and I think I now have an acquaintance. I also made a guy throw up by punching him, but I still had mixed feelings about it. As far as I'm concerned, this was a good day. And then I remembered the small fact that I had nowhere to stay and utterly ruin the mood for myself.

Goddammit!

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><p><strong>So here you go. Working in Chora's Den. I wonder how it will go? Well, I know, since I'm the author and all that, but I'm not going to tell you. I'll let you torture yourself with that question until I answer it myself. :P Though the one thing I <em>can<em> say is that things will start picking up soon...interesting stuff are on the horizon.  
><strong>

**I'm very glad that so many people loved this story and reviewed. Even better, most of the reactions I got were positive! I love you people. Thanks a lot! Thanks for the major support! :D**

**If you loved the story, feel free to leave a comment to tell me what you thought of it. If you saw any flaws or mistakes, feel more than free to point them out. That way I could avoid making them again. Thank you again for the support, and until next time, Delvaro out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello there! I'm back! **

**First of all, thanks for the support I'm getting from you guys! You simply rock! 'Nuff said. The fact that I get a review after each chapter, telling me that you liked the chapter, makes me feel damn awesome. Thanks again!**

**Back to topic, this chapter is shorter but I think it's big enough as it is. So far I've been brainstorming like crazy and I keep getting these ideas popping up left and right. Not a bad thing, really, but I get so many of those it's kinda hard decide which one I should go with. Anyway, here is the chapter, read it! :D**

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><p>A little over a week passed since I started working in Chora's Den and though I wont admit it to anyone, I was actually very surprised how quickly everything settled into a familiar and comfortable routine. I guess I'm adaptable like that.<p>

For now I stayed in a hotel about half an hour on foot from Chora's Den until I'll find some other living place. The bastards charged me 250 credits for a night! I still hadn't learned all the currency matters but I was sure that this wasn't cheap. Then again, I believe that I was well paid. I earned myself three-thousand credits in a work night, so I guess it was pretty good.

The job wasn't as problematic as I thought after my first day. I worked four nights a week, two of them I worked with Jorrun, who was my sort-of-friend. I actually asked for extra shifts, since more money would never hurt and I was given a couple of day shifts, which I sweat to god happened to be the most boring thing in existence. Sure, there were customers but absolutely _nothing _happened. Hell, even the dancers danced with less vigor. That's how boring it was.

There were over things that bothered me. Some were important and some were simply mundanely confusing. When I finally settled to sleep in the hotel after my first night I received a message from the Chairman, and there I got my public file, the one that Jorrun checked out. The Chairman said that I should memorize the thing, so there wont be any weird issues with it, like my files saying one thing and me telling another. For the most part it was accurate, save for dates, some places and other small details. This made me wonder who was the Chairman. On one hand, he transported from another plane of existence...or dimension, whatever this was, so I guessed he either had some extremely advanced technology or some power over time and space, or something like that. But then, how the hell did he created a person – me – without anyone noticing? Either he had some deep contacts with the people in charge here...or he was actually one of the people in charge. I mean, he called himself the Chairman after all. It was food for the thoughts.

Another thing that bothered me, thought not by much, was the time-line. I checked and right now it was the end of July. So this basically made me younger by six months...but according to my files I would be twenty-two in a month. So basically, I would be older by six months. This was confusing as hell and I decided to ignore it for the most part.

For the small part I settled into a routine. I wake up, eat breakfast and go for my morning run, do something to pass the time and go to work. Nothing complicated and simple, just as I liked it.

I was currently doing my morning run. Running through the wards seemed like a bad idea, since I didn't really want to run through those morning crowds so I settled on the presidium. More accurately, the embassies area that was shown in the game. The scenery was beautiful, no one minded a young man jogging around, and the place was pleasantly familiar.

After about two days of running in this place a question that once bothered Tali in the game now started to bug me: how the hell did they stuff a lake into a space-station?

I had to admit that running around like that was somewhat helpful. Even though I no longer had any medical problems, I quickly found out that I was still breathless after running a mile without stopping. And so, I decided that I had to fix that and starting running in the morning and there was improvement...somewhat. At least I was no longer suffocating after running a mile, just somewhat exhausted. Well, I had six months to improve, I think that it's enough time. I was also looking around for a gym or something, to get back into shape quicker.

I finally reached the small plaza in front of the entrance to the wards and collapsed on one of the benches, wiping the sweat off my brow. Wow, this was more tiring than I thought at first. At least now I could complete two laps around the place. I sat there until I caught my breath, and until Iron Maiden's 'Be Quick Or Be Dead' finished playing. Hey, the song fit the situation very well in my opinion. I climbed back on my feet, ignoring the pains in my muscles and did some stretches. Some of the people around gave me curious looks but nothing more than that. I finally went shopping and got myself some new, less attention-grabbing clothes. I now wore black cargo pants and a simple black T-shirt, along with a new pair of boots. It wasn't anything fancy and quite honestly it was cheap, but it was comfortable and effective. I was never one to dress fancy anyway. And I liked dark clothes, nothing wrong with that too. The fabric the clothes were made of was very comfortable on the skin too.

I started walking back home in a comfortable pace, or more accurately, my muscles were killing me and I didn't want to aggravate them too much. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to simply sit down and rest, since I had some very important things to do today.

Since I just finished my first week in Chora's Den apparently the guys in charge decided that I was reliable enough to be given a firearm, just in case. I was practically beating myself up for not noticing everyone else carrying weapons, other than the krogan. He openly carried his weapon, but I doubted anyone had the balls to say something negative about it. Not that they actually carried them openly anyway. I asked Jorrun about it and he simply lifted his short to show me the folded pistol he carried. This was possibly the most embarrassing moment in my week-long career.

I still got my weapon, a Kessler pistol if I was correct. Amazingly enough, I also got the license for it, so if C-sec stops me sometime in the future, I wont get into trouble. That was just sweet! Once I got home I spent nearly two hours studying the pistol in great detail, or in other words, folding and unfolding it and geeking out at how cool it looked. It was then that I realized that I had pretty much had no idea how to use it properly. I could always go with the 'point and shoot' routine but I doubt that will be a wise thing to do. Not to mention I didn't have anywhere to practice. It seemed like a dumb idea to start shooting in my hotel room.

So I decided to do the next thing: I called Jorrun. After the ten minutes he spent yelling at me for waking him up in that early, I asked him for help. After another five minutes of yelling he finally relented and now I was returning home for a shower and then to meet up with him.

I quickly get into the house, undress and jump into the hot shower, sighing in relief when the hot water hits my head. I quickly wash myself in ten minutes, jump out and dry myself with a towel. I pause to look in the mirror and give myself a grin, grinning wider when I look at my white teeth. It was nice of the doctors to clean them and straighten them up as well. I was still amazed at how advanced the medicine stuff is. They gave me a freaking Hollywood smile, hah! Hopefully it will stay that way, because I still don't brush my teeth every day. I slicked back my brown hair, which was nearly reaching my shoulders by now and ran to get dressed.

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><p>"About damn time you got here!" Jorrun growled at me angrily when I finally met up with him in the markets.<p>

"Hey Joe!" I greeted him, enjoying the way he growled angrily at me. Several days ago I overheard Lucy using this affectionate nickname for him. I laughed my ass off and never passed an opportunity to use it, since it made him pop a blood vessel every time I called him that.

"I told you not to use that name!" He growled at me in a threatening manner. I ignored him and vowed to myself to find more GI Joe references and use them around him.

"Whatever. How are this lovely morning?" I asked him with a grin. It was actually around noon right now but no one really cared about that small fact.

"Angry, annoyed, fighting down the urge to kill you. The usual," Jorrun replied, walking over to the closest transportation terminal. I followed him, chuckling to myself. Of course, my mood was ruined when Jorrun called up a car.

"Where are we going? Is there a chance that we can...walk there?" I cautiously asked. God, I hoped he wont ask why I was nervous flying around in the car. If he would find out, he would never let me forget that and by tomorrow the whole ward will know about it.

"To a warehouse owned by a friend and you really want me to walk there? It will take hours and I honestly have better things to do than waste my day-off with you," Jorrun replied with a snort. At that moment the car landed in front of us and he climbed into the driver's seat.

I swallowed down my nervousness and climbed into the car. Jorrun tapped a few buttons on the car console and a second later a steering wheel popped out, which Jorrun quickly took hold of. Huh, didn't know you could do that. Apparently you could easily take control of the car, though it didn't matter to me, since I had no idea how to drive the thing. With a sudden jerk, where I felt my insides sink into the seat, the car flew into the sky.

Oh god, I'm going to die.

"So why'd you want _me_ to teach you how to shoot?" he asked me in a casual tone. "Don't you have anyone else to do that? Couldn't you go to the shooting range or something instead of wasting my time?"

As I was currently holding the seat for dear life I wasn't sure I could answer. But at least I tried. "Because you'd do it for free," I said, managing to speak without stuttering. "Besides, how hard can it be?"

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><p>Okay, it was harder than it looked.<p>

"By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the fucking abyss!" I shouted in rage as I pulled the trigger again and again until my pistol overheated. The fact that Jorrun was literally laughing his ass off behind me was not helping me.

"I thought...you humans had only...one hell," he remarked between laughs.

"Shut the fuck up!" I growl at him, sending him into another fit of laughter. I wasn't going to explain the whole intricate system of the hells, abyss and the other plains of existence to him. It'd take too much time and I'm too pissed off at the moment.

This all started so well too. The warehouse wasn't that big, maybe a hundred meters in length and width. It wasn't that full either, just a few large crates here and there. Apparently it belonged to one of Jorrun's acquaintances, who allowed him to use it from time to time. Jorrun quickly set up targets for me, which happened to be half destroyed security mech from a faulty shipment. Apparently Jorrun's friend was in the shipment business and he recently got a cargo full of ruined mechs. Sucks to be him, I guess. It's good for me though, since I have _a lot_ of targets to practice on.

Sadly enough, I doubted I'd actually manage to shoot all the target. I was actually pretty accurate in close range. The mechs that he lined up eight meters from me was all destroyed. I even scored five headshots out of ten and missed only twice.

Unfortunately, when I finally reached the twenty meters targets...my luck ran out. One hit every ten shots. This was my average. And I just managed to clip the target at best. This was a catastrophe. The fact that I was only getting pissed off and my aim was getting worse as a result was not comforting. The fact that Jorrun was laughing loudly behind me was only making me more angry, and thus making me more pissed off...wasn't comforting either.

"Okay, okay. Stop messing around, please," Jorrun asked after he caught his breath. He coughed a few times before he continued. "_No one_ can be this bad. You're just messing around!"

I very slowly turn my head to look at him, trying to convey all my hate and willingness to kill him through one, hateful glare.

Jorrun freezes and gapes at me. "You're not messing around?" he asked incredulously. "Spirits, you're actually this bad?" by the time he finished speaking he was already laughing.

I grit my teeth in anger. I think I was going to pop a blood vessel by the end of the day. "I have a gun. If you don't shut up, I'll shoot you," I said in a sing-song voice.

"Pfft, as if you'd actually hit me. I bet you could press the gun against my forehead and end up shooting yourself with that shitty aim you have!" he exclaimed with a fit of chuckles. At least he wasn't laughing hysterically now...

"Wanna test that?" I angrily said, taking aim with the pistol again. I squint my eyes and carefully aim the pistol at the distant mech. It took me a few shots to get used to the recoil and my aim improved a bit after I did...though not by much. I pull the trigger and the gun jerks in my hand. The bullet zipped through the air and missed the mech's head by a few centimeters. "Fuck!"

"Alright, at first I was pissed that you made me waste my time with you but now...you officially made my day," he said with an awed tone. "Thank you for giving such high-quality entertainment," he even offered me a small bow.

At the time I was repeating the well-rehearsed mantra: Must not kill him, must not kill him.

"For fuck's sake, would you stop laughing your ass off and actually do what I asked you to? As in, help me improve my aim instead of laughing your ass off? If I wanted someone to laugh at me I'd go and flirt with Lucy," I finally snapped, shutting him up.

"Oh, why didn't you say so sooner?" he asked with mock surprise. My hand twitched as I thought down the urge to shoot him. "I kinda noticed that you were doing this all wrong. Okay, aim the gun," he ordered and I did so, happy that I was finally getting some help here.

He walked up to me and roughly corrected my stance. Ow, I really hope he wasn't going to leave bruises. He then gave me quick instructions, like putting placing my leg there, hold my breath and so on until he told me to give it a shot, literally. I pull the trigger, the gun jerks in my hand and much to my surprise, the bullet hits the mech's abdomen. I was actually aiming for the head but this is good too. A hit is a hit.

"Ah, good. Now try again and repeat the steps," Jorrun remarks happily. "Good to know you're not a lost case, otherwise I'd had to laugh at you again," he adds.

"Prick," I shoot back, taking aim again, doing everything like Jorrun instructed and pulled the trigger, this time hitting the mech in the chest. "Hah!" I exclaim with a laugh.

"Take that, stationary target that doesn't shoot back," Jorrun adds. "I bet you're really proud now. You just killed a defenseless offline mech, how horrible of you," he added snidely.

"Fuck you, Joe," I countered, victoriously grinning when I heard him shut up.

Despite Jorrun being a prick, he was a good teacher, I'd give him that. Now I could actually hit the distant target six out of ten times. That was a good improvement. Then again, it _was_ a defenseless and stationary dead mech, so there really wasn't much to be proud of, if I was planning to shoot people in the future.

After I finally downed all the mechs and peppered them with holes, a bright idea popped up in my head. I needed training and simply running every morning and lifting weights in the gym wasn't going to cut it. I was taking care of weapon training now but...maybe Jorrun was willing to help me more?

"Hey Joe?" I asked as I folded and holstered my gun, ignoring the glare he sent me. "Want to have a spar? I mean, I dont really have any impressive fighting moves and I'm honestly a bit rusty," I quickly explained when I saw the baffled look he gave me.

"Wait..." he lifted a talon, freezing me in place. "You're asking me to fight you?" he asked incredulously. I gave him a nod. "I repeat. You officially made my day. You actually _want _me to kick your ass."

"Hey, I'm not defenseless. You saw me work," I respond with a frown.

"Yeah, but I'm not drunk," he replied with a chuckle. "Don't worry, I wont do any permanent damage."

A few minutes later after we cleared out the ruined mechs and created an empty area that would serve as our arena. Soon enough, we were standing in front of each other, getting ready for the spar. For some reason, I felt a shiver go down my spine and I was feeling a foreboding sensation. I think I was about to do something incredibly stupid.

I quickly took up my boxing fighting stance while Jorrun took a similar stance, though his talons were spread open. As if he was going to claw my eyes out. Not a comforting thought, really. Without any need for a referee, I attacked, aiming a punch into his face. From the way his mandibles were spread, I quickly realized that he was smirking.

At that moment I finally discerned what that odd feeling was: my common sense was tingling.

Jorrun spent years in the turian military, where he learned many ways to incapacitate or kill whatever was in his way. To put it simply, he had military training and experience while I had experience in a handful of schoolyard fights and throwing out a handful of drunks out of a club.

It was over before I even realized what the hell happened to me. I finally understood what it was like to be thrown out of the club by Jorrun...only without the 'thrown out of a club' part.

In one moment my fist is about to hit him in the face, the next one my fist is grabbed in a vice-grip, I feel a painful jab in the ribs that blasted all the air out of my lungs, I feel a tug on my arm, the world whirls around me and all of a sudden I find myself face-first on the floor, my arm held in a very painful angle. Holy shit! What the fuck just happened? I bite my lip to muffle a scream of pain when Jorrun intensifies the pressure on my twisted arm. I tap my free hand on the floor, hoping that he will get the universal gesture of surrendering.

Thankfully, he did. All of a sudden the pressure is gone and I'm left lying on the floor, breathing heavily. "Well, that was fast," Jorrun remarks. I twist my head and glare up at him. "Honestly, you did a mistake a rookie would do. You attacked me first, without knowing what I could do," he said, checking out his talons, brushing off some dirt that got stuck there.

"Oww..." I whined as I slowly moved to a sitting position. My arm was numb but at least nothing was broken, thankfully. "What the hell was that?" I asked. Jorrun never did anything like this at work. Usually he just punched their lights out, or smashed their head against a table.

"It's a...uh...well, I guess the best way it translates is countering?" he tried. "It's something I picked up from military. It's the basic self-defense moves, pretty much every turian kid learns it. Don't you have something like it?"

Oh, that explains it. I read in the codex that pretty much every turian serves in the army, so it's pretty hard, nearly impossible, to meet a turian with no military training. "Uh, no. Humans don't actually have to serve in the military so no, I don't have any military training," I say with a groan as I get back on my feet, rubbing my sore arm. "Though I do had three years of boxing training...which is basically the best way to punch someone," I clarify, in case he didn't know what boxing is. The look he gave me told me that he did.

"Then I must admit that I'm surprised you managed so far. No training at all and yet you still managed to get through a week without a single bruise," Jorrun said, sounding impressed.

"Hah, I guess I'm awesome like that," I say sheepishly, somewhat unused to get compliments, especially from Jorrun.

"Nope, I'm willing to bet it's luck," Jorrun quickly shot me down.

"Oh, really? Then I guess you'd be _glad_ to train me," I say, rolling my eyes and putting much emphasis on the 'glad'.

"Actually, yeah," Jorrun replied with all seriousness, which caused me to freeze and stare at him in utter confusion. I think I was gaping at him, but I wasn't really sure. My brain probably overloaded from the damage he did to me and I simply heard wrong.

"Say what? I think I misheard you."

"Nope. I think I really wouldn't mind training you," he confirmed, which didn't not ease up my extremely confused stare. "I mean, if I train you, I wouldn't have to listen to you whine when you get your ass kicked, I wouldn't have to hear you scream in pain while you get your ass kicked and I think I'd have to be insane to pass up the opportunity to kick your ass every other day!" he explained with excitement. "And you kinda need the help too, though I don't really care about _that_," he added with a shrug.

I groan. I should've known Jorrun would want to train me for absolutely selfish reasons...which happened to involve causing me a great amount of pain. I had to think about this carefully. If I did have some training...It will, first of all, make my job in the club much easier and I think I would be actually useful, useful enough for Shepard. I really hoped she didn't have too high standards.

"I think I'm going to regret this, but I accept your offer," I say and wince when I see his giant grin, or at least what I thought was a grin. "Just...just don't bruise me too much."

"Don't worry..." he said evilly, menacingly cracking his talons. "We're going to have _so_ much fun together," he said in a sing-song voice.

Oh god, what the hell did I get myself into?

* * *

><p><strong>And that's it! The chapter is now over, just in case you didnt notice, though I kinda doubt that. Yes, I'm quite aware that this chapter is a bit...funnier, I laughed myself too when I wrote it. Ah, the wonders of snarky humor. Cant live without it. <strong>

**Beware...because during the next chapters...the plot thickens. Stuff are about to happen...important stuff...stuff which I will not tell you about because it will ruin the story for you. So just wait, I'll have the chapter ready sooner or later. It's bound to be longer than usual :P**

**Thanks for the support again. Dont be afraid to leave a comment or tell me what you thought. It makes me happy. Much happier than a chocolate chip cookie does. And every****one knows that you cant get more awesome than chocolat chips cookies. Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Oh yeah, I'm back! Again! Well, I have one thing to say. This chapter is going to be very interesting. You know why? Well, I'm not going to tell you. Read to find out. On a side note, this is one of the longest chapters so far. I'm surprised it came out this long, since at first I thought it was way longer. Not that it matters, really. I just thought I had more content. Anyway, I dont want to waste your time rambling about pointless stuff.**

**Enjoy the new chapter! :D**

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><p>"Ugh! Fuck," I yelp and rub my sore back as I sit down on the stool, my loud yelp catching the attention of a certain blond barmaid. I arrived to Chora's Den an hour earlier today to get ready for work. Today was supposed to be my shift with Jorrun, so I was expecting an interesting time. Shifts with Jorrun always were interesting.<p>

"Still sore?" she asked with a smirk.

I groan at that. "Yes. I had no idea I could bend that way...then again, I'm pretty sure I _cant_ bend that way on my own," I reply.

It's hard for me to believe that I was already over a month of the Citadel, even harder to believe that I survived a month of Jorrun's 'training'. I personally preferred to call it torture. The fighting style he was teaching me had the potential to be extremely lethal, from what the turian told me, especially if I could learn how to wield knives. If I could compare it to a martial art I knew, the closest thing I could come up with would be judo and krav maga. There was a lot of grappling, sudden throws, fast strikes and crippling attacks. It was made specifically to neutralize the threat in the quickest way possible.

I was honestly very impressed by the style. Jorrun taught me the most basic moves so far and if my performance at work was any indication, I think I got better in fighting. I could actually hold my ground against Jorrun...for about ten seconds. I considered it an improvement on my part. Jorrun had learned the style over ten years ago...while I just learned the basics a month ago.

He also gave me a warning about using the style on other turians. Since the style was pretty much the most basic style taught in the military, it would be pretty useless against a skilled turian. And since many turians decided to improve their close combat skills further by learning a more advanced style, I would be simply outmatched in a drawn-out fight.

"You know, Jorrun likes you," Lucy interrupted my thoughts. "he wouldn't train you otherwise. You know how much he values his free time."

I snort at that. "Oh yes, I can definitely feel the love in his punches," I remark. She did have a point though. He had absolutely no reason to train me, other than me asking him to do so. "Too bad his love causes collateral damage to my bones."

"I'll be sure to tell him you said that," she said nonchalantly. Oh crap. I quickly snap my head to her and look at her with pleading eyes. If she would tell him I said that Jorrun would be extra nice, and give me extra training hours. "Oh, speaking of the devil, look who's here," she added with a big smirk.

I turn around and lo and behold, Jorrun just entered the club. His eyes scanned the place before they settled on us. He gave us a nod in greeting before he briskly walked past the krogan and into the corridor leading to Fist's office.

Okay, something was wrong. Usually Jorrun walks over and actually greets us and usually he doesn't look so...tense. I glance at Lucy and saw her frown as she looked at the corridor where Jorrun disappeared.

"Is everything fine?" I hesitantly ask. By now I finally got used to how things worked. Got settled into the usual routine, so to say. This, however, was unusual.

"I'm not sure," Lucy said quietly, finally tearing her eyes off from the corridor to look at me. I realized from the way she looked at me that she knew more than she told me. I could see indecision and...pain in her eyes, but I couldn't be sure. I was never one to read emotions well to begin with, but even I could see it.

I sat there quietly after that while Lucy went to serve the other two customers who were currently at the bar. About ten minutes passed until Jorrun walked out of the corridor, looking outright angry instead of tense. I straightened in my stool and looked at him as he approached me. He heavily collapsed on the stool next to me and leaned on the counter, crossing his talons in front of his face as he thoughtfully looked ahead.

"Uh, Joe?" I worriedly asked after at least a minute of silence passed between us. Usually it was enough to make him glare at me, or shoot an insult but for some reason it didn't happen this time. Quite frankly, it made me nervous.

His eye turned to me and he stared at me for a few seconds before he spoke. "We have a problem."

Okay, if this wasn't foreboding, I don't know what this was. "What's the matter?"

Jorrun was silent for a few seconds before he released a tired sigh. "I'll be blunt. The old bouncer is coming back. Since he worked here for years and you just for a month, Fist would prefer to just fire you," he said, making me gape at him. I was being fired? What the fuck?

"What? But I thought I was doing a good job so far! Why the hell would-" he interrupted me by raising a hand.

"_However_, there is a way for you to keep your job," he added, somewhat angrily. "Today me and the other guys have a small...errand to do. Fist said that if you want to keep your job, you'd have to come with us."

"Errand?" I asked curiously. This sounded extremely suspicious. They're offering me the job if I did something for them. This scenario looked like something out of a movie.

"You're less annoying now than you were a month ago, so I guess I could be somewhat honest with you," Jorrun said with a short chuckle. Good to know that he can still act normally. This somewhat made me worry less. "As you probably heard, Fist is not exactly the most...law abiding citizen. In other words, our 'errand' is not exactly...legal."

Oh shit. Then again, I shouldn't be this surprised, I _am_ working in Chora's Den after all, which is owned by Fist. But still...I'm not exactly sure I really want to do this. I didn't want to lose my job, but I didn't want to get involved in Fist's crime-ring. This was a tough choice.

"Don't worry. It's nothing serious," he added when he saw my indecision. "We go in, take the package and go out. You just have to make a choice. You say yes, you get geared up and come with us, or you say no, and lose your job here. It's up to you," he finished with a shrug, staring at me intently.

Damn, this sucks. Jorrun is a friend...sort of, and I know he wouldn't suggest this if he knew I wasn't up to it. I also know that Jorrun worked here for the past five years and he turned out okay, for the most part. So what do I do? I had to stay on the Citadel for the next five months and after that...I either go home or join Shepard. I finally achieved some stability here and I was about to lose it...something that I didn't want to happen.

"Alright, what do I do?" I finally said, somewhat bitterly. If I'm already in this crap, I might as well dive knee-deep into this.

"Good, I knew you'd agree," Jorrun said with a smirk, tossing something to me. I barely caught the thing, nearly dropping it in the process, and inspected the odd object. My eyes lit up when I finally realized that I was holding a shield generator. I look back at the turian, silently asking the unspoken question. "Just in case," he says with a shrug.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later I'm sitting in one of the hell-cars beside Jorrun, nervously checking my gun and making sure my shields are online. I was using the full equipment bundle that I had, which happened to be an earphone that was attached to my left ear for radio contact. I nervously looked at the back seat, where the other two passengers were sitting.<p>

"Uh, hey there," I nervously greet them. I only recognized one of them, who happened to be the bald human that I saw when I was hired at first. I met him only twice before and I didn't found out much about him. The other one was an unfamiliar salarian.

"Hey there kid, how are ya doing?" Johnson asked with a friendly nod. "Haven't seen ya since the party."

Adrian Johnson, served in the Alliance until he received an injury during a batarian raid. He quit soon after and ended up on the Citadel and later started working for Fist. He was a friendly enough guy in my opinion, quite polite too.

The party he was talking about happened to be the last time I saw him, which was my fake-real birthday party which I had a week ago. It was nothing big, and was more of a private thing. Had a couple of drinks of Joe, Lucy joined us for some reason and Johnson happened to pass by. He congratulated me and quickly left. I was honestly unsure if I should really consider myself twenty-two or the same age I was. This was confusing as hell.

"I've been good, I guess," I replied and looked at the salarian. "I'm Alex," I introduced myself.

The salarian looked at me for a few seconds before he threw a curt. "Tilben."

Okay, I guess Tilben doesn't like to talk that much, since he proceeded to ignore me. "Don't mind him, Tilben's not much of a talker," Johnson confirmed my thoughts. "So what made you join us?" he asked me. I couldn't help but notice that Johnson had a very American accent, though I kept silent about it. I never liked people pointing out my accent, so why would other like it?

"Meh, the old bouncer is coming back to work. So I either do this or I'm fired," I say bitterly. What can I say? I'm still angry that I was practically forced to do this in order to keep my job.

"Ah, yeah, Mickey's coming back now that his arm is fine. Well, Don'tcha worry about it. This will be quick and simple. We'll be back home in no time," he assured me with a grin.

I wasn't really feeling reassured here, as I kept noticing that everyone was armed to the teeth, other than me and Jorrun, who carried only pistols. Tilben carried what looked like a sniper rifle and a pistol while Johnson seemed to bring the whole freaking armory with him, a pistol, shotgun and an assault rifle.

"So what are we going to do there? What's this all about anyway?" I ask, trying to get the juicy details. Hey, if I'm going to do something dangerous, I might as well know what I'm going to do, since I'm in the dark here.

Johnson opened his mouth to answer but the friendly salarian interrupted him. "Questions later. We're almost at the location," he said in a rude manner.

Johnson frowned at him and muttered something under his breath as he looked out of the window. "Well, as much as I hate to admit, the Fun-Killer is right. We're almost there," he said bitterly, shooting a glare at the salarian, who looked quite offended.

"I have requested countless times that you stop calling me that," Tilben said in an offended tone.

"Yeah, but it's the bloody truth! You wont know what fun is even if it hits ya in the kidney," Johnson replied with wild hand gestures, looking angry at Tilben. I was getting the feeling that they had history.

"That's not true. I went drinking with you more than once," Tilben retorted. "I believe it qualifies as 'fun'."

"Not with you. You try to find your damn logic in everything we do, every single damn time!" Johnson snapped at him again. He then looked at me. "Have you ever tried to score with someone when you have someone telling you that it wont work from an 'evolutionary standpoint'?" he asks me. Considering that I fail with the opposite sex, I could only shake my head. "That's how it is with him! The damn frog is a major cock-blocker!"

"I do not appreciate you comparing me to one of your planet's amphibians," Tilben piped in.

"And I do not appreciate you cock-blocking me every single damn time we go out!" Johnson rounded on him and pointed an accusing finger at him.

All the time was staring at them, somewhat incredulously. I looked at Jorrun, who was simply shaking his head. "Don't mind them," he said. "They're always like that. They're actually best friends," he said, glancing back at the still-bickering pair. "Though I personally think they're acting like a married couple," he added snidely.

"Hey, you take that back!" Johnson cried in protest.

This banter continued until Jorrun finally landed the car. Thankfully, I managed to avoid attention, or getting sucked into the very interesting argument. Overall, I think I liked them. Johnson was a nice guy most of the time and funny too. Tilben was simply socially awkward most of the time, if what Johnson said was true, and simply wasn't very talkative. They were a fun bunch.

We climb out of the car and I see that we are in front of a large warehouse and that someone was already waiting for us here. I mentally groan when I see Gormul, the krogan bouncer, looking at us with his typical glare. "You took your damn time," he growled.

"Take a chill pill," Johnson shot back, much to my pleasure. For some reason, from the moment I met him Gormul seemed to hate me. Maybe it was because I looked weak, who knew.

It was then that I noticed how combat-ready everyone looked to be. Gormul wore the armor he usually wore, had his shotgun already drawn and I noticed he was carrying a small briefcase, though what was inside was a mystery. Johnson was wearing his armor, which I guess he kept from his Alliance days. Tilben, Jorrun and I were the only ones who seemed to wear our casual clothes and relied on our shields.

"Let's get this over with," Gormul grunted and walked to the warehouse entrance.

Jorrun walked up to me so he could walk beside me. "Okay, keep your calm, look tough, don't do anything stupid and everything will be fine," he quietly said. I noticed that Tilben wasn't coming with us, instead walking over to the side of the building and disappearing around the corner. I shot a glance at Jorrun who was quick to answer. "He's a sniper," was the simple reply.

I nodded in understanding. He probably went to find a good vantage point to give us sniper cover. We stopped in front of the entrance and Gormul gave us all a look, pausing on me more than on anyone else, before he opened the door and we stepped in. Everyone, as if a signal was sent, drew their weapons and I quickly followed suit. Oh shit, this looked bad!

The warehouse was well lit, thankfully, and was filled with various containers. In fact, it reminded me of one of the warehouses from Garrus' loyalty mission from the second game. We quietly walked through the warehouse, trying not to make any unnecessary sound...well, everyone except Gormul. He simply didn't give a fuck.

Eventually we came upon an empty space cleared of all crates where I saw a small group, already waiting for us. They weren't from any mercenary group that I knew of, in fact, I wasn't sure they were a merc group to begin with. One of them was a nervous-looking salarian, who was holding a small container that looked like an oversized briefcase and wearing civilian clothing. The rest of the guys, four of them, wore dark armors and were armed with assault rifles, though one of them wielded a shotgun. The only reason I decided they were mercs was their matching armor scheme.

Gormul walked forward, an imposing action in itself that made the salarian even more nervous. He stopped in front of him and leaned forward so that his face was nearly pressed into the poor salarian's nose. "You've got the goods?" he asked.

"Y-you've got the money?" the salarian asked, though his stutter gave away the fact that he was probably scared shitless. I couldn't blame him. Gormul scared me shitless too. Gormul shoved the briefcase into the salarian's hands while he took the container from the salarian.

Holy crap! I was taking part in a drug deal. Holy fucking shit! By he nine hells, I knew this was a bad idea. Idiot! Idiot! I would've beaten myself right now if it weren't for the fact that I was taking part in a freaking drug deal. Maybe it wasn't drugs? I recall that side-mission that Shepard did where Shepard buys illegal biotic amps. Maybe that's what we were buying now?

_'I'm in position. I see five of them and another one on top of a crate. It's a sniper,"_ I heard Tilben speak in my earpiece.

Shit. A sniper? I try not to react to the news but I do glance to the side and saw that Jorrun and Johnson were looking around. There were quite a lot of places for a sniper to hide. We were surrounded by large towers of crates, so he could be anywhere. This meant that we had to rely on Tilben. Hopefully he was a good sniper.

"It's good," Gormul grunted as he snapped the container shut.

"Same here," the salarian nodded, as he closed the briefcase.

"It was nice doing business with you," Gormul said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Wow, he was an ass.

_'Get ready! The sniper is taking aim. I'm taking the shot!'_ Tilben's sudden and alert voice made me jump in place and a second later I heard a distant shot.

Everyone froze at that. It was as if time itself froze. No one moved. No one said anything. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath. The salarian's eyes jumped from one to another. A rumble, like a distant thunder, slowly rose from Gormul. Johnson spat to the ground. I gulped.

The moment was utterly shattered when soundlessly and without warning a dead body dropped to the floor with a smack, landing right between the two groups. I could easily see a small hole on the side of the man's head. Everyone took one glance at the dead sniper.

And all hell broke loose.

Without any warning whatsoever everyone raised their weapons and started firing. Jorrun pulled me after him, snapping me out of my shock, into the closest mound of crates. I blind-fired my pistol as I ran to the crates. I was sure that I didn't hit anything, but at least I did _something_ in return. I see, more than feel, a few rounds impact my shields. I jumped the last few steps and land with a grunt. Holy fucking shit! I was just shot and saved by a shield! This was so cool. Not the getting shot part but the shielding part.

Jurron quickly joins me behind the crates and he doesn't seem to be that worried. I spend a few seconds watching him standing up and shootings the mercs until he ducks back down again as bullets start to fly above us, most of them hitting the crate we're hiding behind.

I look to the side and see Johnson behind another crate, blind-firing with his assault rifle. Gormul was nowhere in sight. Damn, was he killed? I decided to risk a peek. I slowly peek out form the side of the crate and quickly scan the area. There was a dead merc lying on the floor, right beside the dead sniper. Neither Gormul or the salarian were in sight.

"Alex! The salarian's running away with the money! Go help Gormul! Now!" Johnosn barked, pointing at a passageway to my right. I try to give him my best 'are you shitting me' look but unfortunately he ignores it. "Go! We will cover you!"

Before I can say anything Jorrun jumps out of cover and runs to another crate, this one closer to the mercs. I see a few rounds bounce of his shields. I saw him activate his omni-tool and a second later one of the mercs was showered in sparks. Whoa, that was an Overload! The merc stumbles back from the sudden shower of sparks that erupted from him and was quickly shot down with a few very accurate shots from Johnson and Jorrun.

"Fucking _move_ already!" Johnson shouts, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I try to calm my breath, with no success and simply do what what most people do when they're supposed to do something scary. I jump out of cover and sprint over to the passage between the containers. "Fuuuuck!" I scream as a couple of shots impact my shields. I don't stop and I sure as hell am not slowing down to shoot back. Jorrun and Johnson are handling it well enough in my opinion.

I keep running well after I enter the passageway, which honestly was annoying as hell. Every few feet I had to make a turn to either left or right. It was like a freaking maze. By sheer dumb luck I manage not to get lost in there and come out into a corridor with a door at the end and much to my surprise I see the salarian trying to open the door, with not much luck. Hell yeah! Hail the locked doors! Apparently the salarian heard me and turned around to look at me with a frightened expression...and quickly ran into another passageway. I gaped for a split second as I was trying to catch my breath and started running after him.

"Stop running motherfucker!" I scream after him. It was a miracle I wasn't that tired yet. All the morning runs paid off. If I can complete four laps around the embassies, I can catch this fucker.

"Leave me alone!" I heard the salarian's somewhat squeaky voice from further ahead. Damn, fuck this crate maze. At least it's not a freaking chase like in the latest Indiana Jones movie. That would be insane, though quite awesome.

"Fuck you!" I shout back, hoping to get a reaction out of him. It would surely help me pinpoint his direction. Unfortunately, he doesn't reply and this leaves me to blindly run through this maze.

All of a sudden, the maze ends and I come out of the maze into a relatively clear area filled with small crates. It kinda reminded me of all the stuff from the games, like the waist-high covers that tell you a firefight is going to happen. Exactly in the middle of the area I see the salarian, who clumsily tried to jump over a crate and ended up tripping and falling to the floor.

Oh, I just cant leave an opportunity like that wasted. Where the fuck was our krogan anyway? I haven't seen him since the start of this mess. I sprinted after the thief, jumping over a crate on the way. I learned some parkour about seven years ago and I believe I learned some useful stuff. I finally quit after a particularly embarrassing fall that landed me into a trashcan.

Regardless, I was gaining on him. He was less than five meters from me and I was faster. Just as he entered another passage between the containers I finally caught him. I launched myself into a flying tackle and hit him in the lower back, making him fall and smack against the floor. That must've been painful. Thankfully he softened my landing.

The money briefcase slid away when we landed but I paid it no mind. The salarian twisted underneath me so that he now was facing me and he tried to slap me away. I push his arms away with one arm and drive a fist into his face. For a moment, his resistance fell and it was enough for me. Compared to Jorrun this was an amateur. I grab one of his arms and roughly roll him on his back. I then start to twist the arm in a very uncomfortable way. The salarian started screaming and squirming beneath me but I ignored him, trying my hardest not to hear his screams. If there was one thing that Jorrun beat into my head, it would be his first lesson: always finish what you start. I already had the salarian where I wanted him, I might as well finish the move. With a hard twist and yank and a loud 'pop' the salarian's shoulder came out of it's socket. His screams intensified tenfold and I grimaced at the sound.

I quickly let go of him and climb back to my feet. The salarian rolls around on the ground and grabs his dislocated shoulder, all the while shrieking in pain. This was obviously not a trained soldier. I give him a kick in the head and he quiets down, falling unconscious, which made me sigh in relief. In all honesty, what I just did here scared the crap out of me. The fact that I made a living being scream like that made me very uncomfortable with myself.

Now that I stopped running and the adrenaline was wearing off I was panting heavily and feeling utterly exhausted. I could no longer hear any gunshots, so it meant that it was already over and I was willing to place my bets on my team being the victors. I pick up the money briefcase and start running in a jogging pace to the place I came from. Hopefully getting back would be easier. It would be very embarrassing if I would get lost in the damn maze now.

Unfortunately, just as I came running out of the passageway something jumped at me. The only thing I manage to see was the butt of an assault rifle heading straight to my face. I feel something hard hit me in the face, my vision flashes and the next moment I'm lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

My vision returns to normal and I a couple of mercs picking up the briefcase I just dropped, one aiming his assault rifle at me. Fuck! This is bad. Really, really bad. I had no time to do anything. If I would try to reach my gun, I would probably get shot. I had shields, but I doubted they could hold automatic fire from this range. The one who picked up the briefcase gave the other one a nod. The one with the rifle trained at me approached closer and aimed the rifle at my head.

Fuck, is this how it ends? Getting killed by some unknown merc before I even managed to see Shepard? Shit, this sucks terribly. Goddammit! I think I would manage to get off a shot before he manages to get through my shields...then again, I doubt I would manage to get through _his_ shields. Goddamn, I see no way out of this. I'm going to die. I never actually did anything useful here...or even said goodbye to my family. The man squared his rifle and I knew he was going to pull the trigger. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth.

Two things happened at once. Out of nowhere a roaring krogan crashed into the briefcase carrying merc in full sprint and slammed him against the container, ramming him into the metal with his body-weight. My eyes snapped open just in time to see the man that was going to shoot me turn around, aiming his rifle at Gormul.

I didn't think, I simply acted. With a swift movement I draw my pistol and aim it. All of a sudden a shower of sparks erupt around the merc and his shields fail. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that this was an Overload, but right now my brain was simply overloaded with other things. I pull the trigger and the merc staggers back, turning around to face me.

He lets his rifle drop to the floor with a clatter and clutches his throat. I could see blood start to sip between his fingers. A lot of blood. I heard a wet gurgle come out of the helmet as the merc fell to his knees and then flat on his face. One of his hands released his neck, allowing the blood to pool out. The hand clawed at the floor for a few seconds, leaving a bloody hand-print until it stopped moving. I could still hear the wet gurgle but after a few seconds he quieted down.

I stared at the dead merc for a few seconds, more accurately and the growing pool of blood that was pooling out of neck, where I shot him. Oh god, I just shot a man. I actually killed someone. I half hoped, half wanted the man to get back up and shout 'boo!' at me, or hell, even start shooting me but the rational part of my mind knew that this wasn't going to happen. Fuck, I just killed a man. But...it was me or him. Just a minute ago he was about to shoot me...and I shot him instead.

I slowly get back to my feet and look at Gormul, who already picked up the money and was now looking at the merc I killed. He then looked back at me, scoffed loudly and left without saying a word.

Fuck, getting saved by Gormul. Usually it would bother me a lot more but right now I was feeling like crap, though I was feeling numb, for the most part. I just nearly died and made my first kill. I was expecting to feel...a bit different.

I saw Jorrun slowly walking up to me. Ah, this explains where the Overload came from. I didn't really expect Gormul to be the type to throw an Overload anyway. He stopped in front of me and looked me over. "You okay?" he asked worriedly.

My lip was swollen and I tasted some blood on my lips but other than a bruise I think I was fine. A busted lip in a firefight was a small price to pay I think. I was feeling like shit though. "Yeah," I say and noticed that my throat is very dry. "I'm fine."

Jorrun looked at the dead merc for several seconds and the looked at the pistol still held in my hand, probably putting the pieces together. "Nice shot," he remarked.

I send another glance to my first kill. "I guess," I agree, my voice hoarse.

"The salarian?" he asked, looking past my shoulder at the place where I left the unconscious salarian.

I actually managed to crack a smile at that. "Disarmed," quite literally if I must add.

Jorrun gave me a rough pat on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go get a drink or two," he said as we slowly walked away from the scene.

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><p>About an hour later we all, minus Gormul who went back to Fist, sat around a table in Flux. When I asked why we weren't drinking in Chora's Den, since we worked there I was told that it was 'tradition'. I had no idea what this tradition was about but I wasn't about to argue. I really needed that drink. We spent the time, more like I spent the time retelling them what happened to me when I went off to chase the salarian. I think I saw a proud look in Jorrun's eyes when I told them what I did to the poor guy's arm. Their part of the story could be summed up with 'we shot them, end of story'. Not really exciting.<p>

This officially sucked. I nearly died, I killed someone and worst of all, I took part in an illegal deal, which officially made me a criminal. Kinda. I'm not really sure. Damn, this really wasn't what I planned when I came up with this plan in the first place. I just wanted to spend the damn six months chilling out in Chora's Den, earn some money, get into shape and then maybe Join Shepard. Getting drawn into Fist's schemes was not what I planned on doing.

"So...this was your first kill?" Jorrun asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I take another gulp from my beer bottle. "Yeah," I say awkwardly. How am I supposed to answer that kind of question anyway?

"Ah, I remember my first kill. Don'tcha worry, you'll get over it," Johnson supplied, drowning his shot of stronger liquor. I wasn't sure what he was drinking, but the strong smell told me that Adrian was going to have a killer hangover tomorrow.

"Really? How did you deal with it?" I ask, curious about it. Maybe it will help me to deal with it, who knew?

"It happened on a remote colony back when I was running with the Alliance. There was a damn slaver raid on the planet and we were the only ones who could protect the civvies. Didn't really notice at the time, with being shot at and all but I felt a bit like crap later. It was nothing that a strong drink couldn't cure though. Bastards deserved it anyway," Johnson explained with a glazed look in his eyes.

I nodded at that. That was fundamentally different. Those were slavers that he killed. I probably killed a guy who was simply doing his job. I look at Tilben, who was drinking a non-alcoholic soft drink, which elicited a 'pussy' remark from Johnson.

"Happened a long time ago. Not bothered by it. Was a necessity, like what happened to you. Either you or him. Simple," he said in response to my look. Indeed, ever the logical guy. I'm not sure I could really think like that, since I was always more...emotionally-driven.

My eyes finally landed on Jorrun, who cleared his throat before he spoke. "Back in the military. We were raiding a pirate camp. I shot the batarian, froze for a few seconds, got over it and then shot another pirate," he said with a shrug, looking to be completely uninterested in what he said.

"That's...cold," I remark.

"Maybe it is. What do you want me to do? Give him a proper funeral, send my apologies to his family and adopt his children? All this while being shot at? No thank you. Not my damn problem. He was doing his job and I was doing my job...I just happened to do my job better, simple as that," he explained.

In some morbid and weird way what he said made a lot of sense. I was doing my job today, same as the guy that I killed. I just did my job better...or was just luckier than him. I'm not sure I was ready to start thinking like Jorrun. I don't think I'm capable of being this...casual towards killing people. Yet. And this fact made me feel horrible, especially since I was feeling worse about breaking the salarian's arm than actually killing that merc.

I unleash a heavy sigh. By the nine hells, I need some sleep. I chug down the rest of my beer and stand up. "I'm going to get myself some shuteye. I feel like shit and I'm tired. I'll see you guys tomorrow," I say as I start walking away. "good night."

"Good job Alex, you handled yourself pretty well," Jorrun's words made me pause as I looked back at the group.

Getting complimented for killing someone and breaking someone's arm was definitely a weird sensation. I don't really feel like I did a good job. Didn't really want to think like that. "Thanks, I guess," I replied slowly as I turned around and left the club, unsure of what I was feeling. I guess it will take some time for me to get used to this sensation.

Though I'm not really sure I really _want_ to get used to it.

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><p><strong>And that's it. Wow, I really liked writing this chapter but I am utterly unsure. This is officially the first real action scene I had in the story. Huzzah! Unfortunately, I am entirely unsure about how it came out, especially that scene where Alex nearly died. I have no idea how I portrayed the emotion and all that...so I hope I'd get your comments on what you thought of it. It would really help. I want to know if I did everything right or if I can improve in some way. Especially in the action scene department. Tell me what you think! :D<strong>

**Also, thank you! Everyone who supports this story by reviewing or simply faving it is making me feel awesome! Thanks for the major support. It makes me glad to know that you like my story so far! ^.^ Feel free to leave a comment, especially a comment that lets me know what you think so far. Feel free to point out mistakes, flaws and all that stuff. This way I could improve by not doing said mistakes ever again. Thanks again!**

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello again! **

**Thanks for the big support! I'm glad that you loved the last chapter! Especially this, from Dawning Wisdom: 'Liking what I am seeing here. Next thing ya know this could be the next 'Masses to Masses' if you keep this up!'**. **This could possibly be the best thing I've been told and you officially made my day . Thanks a lot****!**

**Now, to the next chapter! Admittedly it's a bit short and not a lot happens (depends on who you ask) but next chapter is going to be...interesting.**

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><p>Two months. Two full months have passed since my first fire fight. It's hard to believe that I only have three months left until Eden Prime and Shepard arriving to the citadel. Quite surprising how time flies when you're having fun...sort of. I worked and trained most of the time but I think I had fun more than once.<p>

I think I finally got over the fact that I killed someone. I had trouble sleeping for a week or two, since every time I closed my eyes I could hear the guy's wet gurgle after I blew out his throat. It was a sound that I didn't want to hear again. Thank the gods that he wore a helmet, I think it would've been worse if he was looking at me with his probably accusing and angry face. I've come to terms with it, thankfully. If I wanted to help Shepard, I'd need to get used to killing, since it's kinda what Shepard does on daily basis.

While nothing important happened during these two months, quite a lot of small, less important things happened.

Jorrun saw that I pretty much panicked during my first combat experience, for the most part, and decided to take care of it. I was immensely surprised to find out how turians did their advanced combat training. He pretty much re-purposed our training warehouse into a freaking warzone. Placed crates all over the place to be used for cover and other obstacles. Then he set our pistols to shoot concussive rounds and, much to my shock, told me to shoot him. It was at that moment that I finally settled and accepted the fact that Jorrun was insane.

No one got hurt in our mock fights, thankfully, and the most we did was just knock out our shields. It really surprised me how much I sucked as Jorrun utterly decimated me every single time. Though after two months of doing this I actually got better and managed to nail him good a couple of times. Or a couple dozen times, much to my pleasure. One time he even fixed up several mechs, programmed them to shoot me and pretty much told me to go wild. It was somewhat fun, if I ignored the part where my life was in danger. He actually was extra nice and taught me how to overload shields. I still sucked at it – something which Jorrun loudly said, after I burned down one of the transportation terminals by accident while messing around – and my Overload was incredibly weak, since my omni-tool was one of the cheap ones. This settled one of my problems. I wont be that useless in a firefight now. Though admittedly, I wasn't that excited by the prospect of another firefight.

My close combat skills also improved. I officially could fight against Jorrun for about three minutes until he gets tired of it and knocks me out. I also knew that he wasn't serious whenever we fought and realized that I'll probably never beat him. Maybe with a few more years of experience and training, but not anytime soon.

Also, much to my satisfaction, I finally got some muscle on me. It was nothing impressive or big, like the bodybuilders had, but my muscles were more defined now. I actually had a sixpack, much to my surprise. I guess it completed my athletic image. Going to the gym and doing those morning runs really paid off. I haven't had such an athletic figure in years!

After the last 'mission' I had another one just two weeks ago. This one, thankfully, went smoothly and without problems. We arrived, took the thing we bought and quickly left the scene. It was slightly embarrassing that I didn't even have a clue what we were dealing with, but so far I was willing to bet my money on red sand. I could always ask, but I wasn't really sure I actually _wanted_ to know. Ignorance is bliss, right?

I met Mickey, who turned out to be an actually fun guy to hang out with. He was only three years older than me and he was fun to talk with. Sadly, since I took his job, he was promoted and was working directly for Fist now so I didn't get many chances to chat with him. So far I saw him only three times in two months.

As for Johnson and Tilben, they are a fun bunch and we actually hanged out more than once. Johnson had some cool stories from his military days and he usually has some good jokes. I still cant understand how he can hold so much liquor though. The guy can outdrink a krogan from what I saw so far. Tilben never actually talked about himself, other than a few words here and there and despite what Johnson said, he actually had a sense of humor.

Right now I was walking down the street of one of the unfamiliar wards. I've been here three months and so far I've barely seen one ward! I had to admit that I was very curious. Not everyone would get an opportunity like that in their lives...well, not everyone from _my_ world. And so I decided to explore. I had several free hours and decided to spend it by aimlessly walking around the other wards, look through the shops and maybe buy a few things. I didn't have that many expenses. I didn't have to pay any pills, other than my hotel rent and the food I ate wasn't that expensive. I actually had a lot of money now, nearly a fifty thousand credits.

I actually had another reason to explore in mind. It seemed silly at first but as I considered it more, I found it more and more appealing. I was pretty much by myself here, had a job and had more than enough money for now. I thought that it was time for me to do something for myself. Enjoy my stay here, in a way. So I decided to do something that I was considering quite a while ago.

It took me a while, around three hours to be exact, but I finally found the place I was looking for. It was a small shop, looking to be quite unpopulated but I wasn't really surprised by it. I walked inside and saw a heavily tattooed man looking up at me from his computer screen. "You need anything?"

I give him a small grin. "Yeah, I think I do," I reply as I walk up to the terminal and open up the gallery.

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><p>Chora's Den looked exactly the same when I entered the club. Same faces, same lame music. The only people who were here at this 'early' hour were only the people who worked here, or the regulars.<p>

However, everything pretty much stopped once I entered and everyone turned to look at me. The only thing that didn't change was the music, though if it stopped now it would be a truly amazing moment. Lucy raised a thin eyebrow at me as she looked at my new appearance. Jenna actually gaped. Johnson choked on his drink and Jorrun blinked at me a few times. Gormul gave me a glance and nothing more, not that I was surprised. I actually thanked him for saving my life and he simply said that I sucked because I needed to be saved in the first place. Rude bastard.

I sheepishly rub my now nearly-bald head and give them a small grin. I didn't expect them to react this way to my new haircut. So I cut off my hair, whats the big deal? I was getting tired of it anyway. Plus, I probably look more intimidating now, which is always good in my line of work. I kept my stubble though.

Considering I wore a sleeveless shirt now, I guess they saw my new inks too, which is probably what caught their attention. Yeah, I always wanted a tattoo and now that I had money...why not? It wasn't that expensive either. I paid six thousand creds for all of them, and I think it's a pretty cheap price. Too bad that I wasn't very original with what I picked, for the most part.

My left bicep now had a tattoo of four burning aces, pretty much like the one James Hetfield has...or had. If anyone could actually point out that I'm a Metallica fan judging by the tattoo, I'll give them a big hug. Metallica are like...200 years old here, which is freaking ancient. From the wrist of my right arm I now had red, angry flames rising up to my elbow. Really, who _didn't_ like flames? I sure did. The back of my left palm now had a Nyd rune tattooed on it, since I always liked runes and other mystical stuff. Nyd pretty much meant 'endurance' and 'survival', both of which I would need in quantities in the close future. It also happened to mean 'destiny' but that's because I was feeling poetic at the moment I decided to get it.

"That's an...interesting look," Lucy remarked as I took a seat by the bar. "Why did you decide to get inked all of a sudden?"

I shrugged at that. "Always wanted to. Never had the opportunity, until now, at least," I answer.

At that moment Jorrun sat beside me and looked at me weirdly. "You shaved the fur off your head," he remarked.

Wait, what? Fur? What the hell, I thought we were past the primate jokes! "Joe, it's called hair and you know it. And before you ask, I did it because I felt like it," I say quickly before he could ask anything else.

"Hey, just remarking," Jorrun defended himself.

Without any warning Johnson collapsed on the stool next to me. "Give him a drink from me, and one for me too," he said to Lucy before he turned to me. "Congratulations, now you don't look like a wimpy kid anymore and more like a man!" he said with a laugh and a hard pat on my shoulder. I winced in pain at that, since my tattooed shoulder was still a bit sore.

"Screw you," I retort. Lucy placed two shots of blue liquid in front of us. "and I'm not going to drink that. I have to work tonight and I really prefer to be sober while doing it."

Johnson shrugged at that. "Good for me then," he said before he downed the two glasses in quick succession. "I'm going anyway. I'll see you chumps tomorrow, unlike you, I have a date tonight," he said with a vicious grin, wiggling his eyebrows for emphasis. I had to snort at the sight.

I was about to say something funny about it but unfortunately Jorrun was quicker than me. "Oh? And who is the unlucky man?" he asked with mock excitement. I snickered loudly at that, joined by Lucy, who managed to mask her laughter with a cough.

"Aren't you a bit old for dating? Shouldn't you be thinking about retiring instead?" I pipe in with a grin.

Johnson visibly deflated as we laughed at his expanse. "Oh, fuck you," he grunted and angrily marched out of the club.

* * *

><p>Soon enough everything went back to normal and I started doing my job. Some of the regulars who already knew who I was sent me some curious looks but I ignored them, in favor of doing my job. I was somewhat glad that no one really minded that I changed my appearance so much. It made me feel good, since I wouldn't have changed back anyway. Growing your hair back in an instant is pretty hard to do anyway.<p>

The night so far was pretty much boring. Nothing happened, no one caused any trouble and me and Jorrun quickly ran out of interesting things to talk about and our usual banter was getting tiresome after the first hour. I think that at some point I actually fell asleep since one moment it was ten and the next it was already two past midnight.

A nudge to my ribs woke me up from my boredom induced trance and I looked at Jorrun in question. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he asked me, looking at the bar.

I followed his gaze and it took me several seconds to see the problem. An angry-looking turian was talking with Lucy. The barmaid looked equally furious, which was very weird for me to see. Usually Lucy was the epitome of calm and witty. Right now though she was heatedly saying something to the turian, even jabbing a finger into the turian's chest. The turian reacted badly to the gesture and grabbed her hand and I could see Lucy cringe in pain.

This was apparently the biggest mistake the turian could ever do.

One moment Jorrun was standing beside me and a second later he's already over halfway to the turian. He purposefully walked over to the offender, grabbed his free arm, twisted it painfully behind his back and grabbed the turian by the head. He then smashed the turian face-first into the counter, paused for a second and then smashed him again and once more. Jorrun then spun the dazed turian around, slammed a knee into his stomach, quickly followed by an elbow to the face and finished it all by slamming his head into the counter one last time. The turian collapsed to the ground, probably unconscious before his head landed on it.

I could only gape at the scene. This was the first time I saw Jorrun acting so...vicious. Usually he just punches or twists a limb into a painful position but he never beats them to a pulp. I frown as I see him saying something to the distraught Lucy before he dragged the dragged turian outside. Something was going on here and I had no clue what it was. I walk over to the bar to speak with Lucy and I see her equally troubled, if not more than me.

"What was that about?" I ask, looking at the closed entrance door.

"It's nothing. Nothing you should worry about," Lucy said, her tone telling me that she was definitely not telling me something.

"Are you sure?" I tried. "Maybe I could help."

"No, no. It's nothing, I told you already. Go back and do your job," she replied, waving me away. I complied but decided that I'll ask her about this later. Jorrun definitely knew what this was about, judging from his reaction.

About five minutes later Jorrun came back. This left me only more concerned, since it shouldn't take him so long to throw someone out. "What was that about?" I repeat the question.

Jorrun looked definitely angry and troubled. He didn't answer me at first and simply stared at the bar. I followed his gaze and saw that he was staring at Lucy. Okay, there was definitely something going on here that involved these two. After another minute of silence he finally replied. "Nothing at all. Just throwing out an asshole. You're doing the next one by the way," he said cheerfully but I could easily see that he was faking it. By now I could easily recognize his moods and cheerful he definitely wasn't.

"Well, mate, if you want to brush me away and leave me in the dark, no problem. Just tell me if I can help you with whatever is bothering you," I say nonchalantly. Jorrun was a friend and I think I'd gladly help him if he needed help with something. I was curious as hell too.

Jorrun stared at me for a short while before he muttered a barely noticeable "Thanks."

"No problem," I say, not looking at him.

The rest of the night went by quietly. Most of the nights with Jorrun were like that, since no one really wanted to mess with him. We quickly finished our jobs, waited until the place was empty enough and officially finished the job. Jorrun decided to walk escort Lucy home, making me even more concerned now. I shrugged it off, since Jorrun could handle himself better than me, said my goodbyes and walked home.

Even though it was late the streets were still full of life, though some of the stores were closed, most of them them were still open. Almost no one paid me any attention and I quietly reached the hotel I was staying at. I greeted the receptionist and took the stairs to climb to the upper floors. It was way faster than the elevator.

I walked into my room with a sigh of relief, took off most of my clothes, leaving myself only in my pants, and crashed on my bed. I stayed like this for several minutes until I turned on the TV. Maybe there was an interesting movie playing. Some of the movies around were pretty good and I had to admit that some alien movies were actually fascinating. Turians made awesome action movies and much to my delight, it was exactly what was on TV at the moment. I lied on my bed for a long while, watching the movie until I finally dozed off.

I woke up to the sound of loud bangs and my doorbell ringing. I groaned in annoyance and saw that the movie wasn't even over yet. I guess I haven't slept long. With a frustrated groan I stand up and walk to the door and opened it. The sight that greeted me left me speechless.

"Joe! What the fuck happened to you?" I ask frantically as I step back to get a better look. Jorrun was standing in front of me, bleeding from several small wounds on his face, which sported several bruises. The most worrying sight was the frantic, almost frightened look in his eyes. He walked inside without waiting for an invitation and stopped in the middle of the room, looking at me with some hesitation until he made up his mind.

"Alex, I need your help."

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><p><strong>Yep, like I said. Next chapter is going to be interesting. Hehehe. Heh, I hope you dont mind the fact that I changed the character's appearance a bit. Regardless, I'd like to know what you thought about this chapter and the whole story so far. Thanks for the support I am getting so far, I love you people!<strong>

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello again! Yeah, this chapter came out later that usual. Well, considering the updating ratio I had so far. I was kinda having the time of my life playing the ME3 demo! Hell yeah, multiplayer for the win. You wont believe how fun it is to play as a salarian infiltrator, or a krogan soldier. Heheh.**

**Anyway, about this chapter. I have the odd feeling that many of you will be all 'What the fuck is going on here?' when you read this. But I must say that I actually left some hints about this, well, not exactly big hints, since I tried to be subtle. Hopefully, you wont get mad at me for hiding those hints too well, since when I try to be subtle, I can accidently go into the 'nonexistant' area.**

**Yeah, this chapter will have a _lot_ of information you might find interesting. Lots and lots of revelations, heh. Anyway, have fun and read the chapter! :D**

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><p>In just a couple of minutes I was dressed, had my pistol and shield module and was already locking the door behind us. My exhaustion was completely forgotten and I was suddenly feeling completely awake. The sight of Jorrun's blood and bruises snapped me awake. It was quite a shocking sight for me, since no matter how hard I hit him in the spars I never even came close to bruising him or drawing blood. Jorrun was very good in close combat and if he came to me looking like this, things looked badly serious.<p>

We quickly walked out to the streets, more like Jorrun lead me to the transportation terminal. He hadn't said another word for me and it was killing me inside. I wanted to know what was going on but he never answered any questions I asked. The car arrived within a minute and we climbed inside. Jorrun entered an address and set the car on auto-pilot and started fiddling in his omni-tool. I sneaked a peek and saw him sending a message to Johnson, directing him to the address we were heading too. Within a few minutes he finished sending messages to both Johnson and Telbin and we sat in silence.

"You mind telling me what's going on?" I finally ask, unable to bear the silence anymore.

Jorrun looked down to his knees, looking to be in pain. "They took her," he finally said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Took who?" who took who? The only 'her' Jorrun had anything to do with was...my eyes widened as I understood.

"Lucy," he answered the question I already answered in my mind. "they ambushed us when I was walking her home. There were too many of them and they held her at gun-point. I couldn't do a thing!" he growled, punching the the door, surprising me with the reaction. Jorrun never snapped like this. What the hell was going on between him and Lucy? "They beat me up for a few minutes and then left, taking her with them," he growled, barely containing his rage.

"Who are they? Why would they take her?" I ask, snapping him out of his anger. How the hell can I help if I don't know whats going on. Come on Jorrun, help me out here. He fell silent again, making want to pull my hair out...until I remembered I no longer had hair to pull. I patiently waited until he will speak again and to my relief I didn't have to wait long.

"My old unit," he told me, looking at me with a look filled with regret and anger. "We served in the army together, which is admittedly not the most happy years of my life. We...didn't exactly part on good words. Last I heard that bunch of moronic bigots joined some merc group in the terminus systems," he said, sounding like he was beating himself up inside. "Cant believe I called them friends..."

A merc group in the terminus system? Well, I knew three of those, though only one had turians in the game. So that left the Blue Suns. Oh fuck, we're gonna deal with blue suns now? I squashed those thoughts and concentrated on the present. Okay, Jorrun's old army buddies were out to get him...this left one question unanswered. "How the hell is Lucy involved in this? Why did they take her?"

"She's my wife. Well, soon to be wife. We're engaged," he said as if it was the most known fact in the world.

Oh, she's engaged to Jorrun. Wait...what? "_What?_" I exclaim with an unbelievably high-pitched voice.

"Huh? You didn't know? I thought everyone knew we were together," he says with genuine surprise. I'm still not over the fact that Lucy is going to get married to Jorrun. How in the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss I missed this small, life-changing detail?

Oh god, now I understand why Jorrun gave me these weird looks after each time I flirted with Lucy. This explained so much! Like why Jorrun always stayed in the club after we finished our job, why Lucy hanged out with him so often, why he walked her home several times a week, why Jorrun visited the club so often when he didn't even have to work on that day and how Lucy knew Jorrun so much.

"Are you okay?" Jorrun asks worriedly. No, I'm not okay Joe. I just found out that two of my friends are engaged and no one bothered to tell me anything! Is it even legal to get married to a different species? This is totally dark territory for me. I know that back where I came from it was illegal to marry to the same gender in some places – though oddly enough its okay to marry a pillow of all things, despite the absurdity of that – but I definitely have no idea how things work here. It's not like I study laws or anything.

"No, I'm not okay. No one told me about this huge thing!" I shout. I _hate_ being left out!

"And you're...okay with this? Me being with her I mean..." he asks, shifting in his seat. I can easily see he's uncomfortable with the topic.

Was I okay with this? I guess. I have no experience with these kind of things, really. It's going to be weird for them, with having different acids and all but I guess if they love each other and all that, it's okay. "Yeah, I'm...okay with this. I'm more bothered that no one told me about this!" and I feel quite like an idiot since I pretty much flirted with her daily! God, someone could have warned me in advance!

"After the last time I advertized our relationship...I didn't bother," Jorrun mutters, loudly enough for me to hear.

"What happened?" I ask. It seems like there is a lot of history here.

"It's a long story," he counters.

"We have time. I need to know this," I shoot back. Don't leave me out of this Joe.

Jorrun sighed, probably giving up. "My family is quite respected among the army. We have a long military history, about fourteen generations. We even had a few generals in our family. Until I came to be. I'm the...what do you humans call it...Ah, the black sheep of the family," he explains, mockingly saying the word 'family' for some reason. Huh, I guess this goes a long way back, if he tells me about his family, which was quite a taboo topic with him. Jorrun _never_ talked about them.

"What, were you banished from your family?" I ask, since it sure sounded like it.

"Pretty much, only I banished myself," he said with a small chuckle. "Ever since I was just a child I was told that I must make the family proud, make the army proud. It was like a goal for our family, to reach the highest military rank possible. I never wanted that for myself. I wanted to live my own life, instead of doing what my _father_ wanted," he practically spat the word father. I guess there was some bad blood here, since he seemed to dislike him. "I was the equivalent of your military's Lieutenant when I left the the turian military, and once I left I was pretty much banished from the family. I _shamed_ them."

"What do they have to do with what's going on now?" I ask, using the pause in his story to ask my question.

"I'm getting there. Anyway, I arrived to the Citadel and started working in Chora's Den after a while...there I met her. We hanged out a couple of times, talked once in a while and after about a year of knowing each other, I asked her out. She accepted," he paused again and sighed. "I was actually happy at the time. I had my own life, my own job and I met a woman that made me happy. I called mom and told her about it...didn't end well, unfortunately."

I raise an eyebrow at that. "Wait, why didn't it end well?"

"Mom was a scout in the military. Father was the equivalent of your military's Major. They both fought in the Relay 314 Incident. They...uh, don't really like humans," he said with a small wince. "When I left the army they just didn't talk about me, acted like I just had some mental problem. Mom still talked to me from time to time. After I told them that I was dating a human of all things, they pretty much started hating me...well, not mom but she didn't say anything, since Father blew a fuse.. Father called me a traitor and that for all he cared, I died on some far-away planet. I dont exist for them anymore."

Ouch, this had to be painful for him. Being hated by your own family. I could see that he was uncomfortable talking about this so I changed the subjects. Hopefully it wont touch the subject of family. "So about your military buddies..." I start, hoping to get him going with the subject.

He snorted at that. "They're not my buddies. They are a bunch of bigoted idiots. When I recruited Father pulled some strings. I ended up serving with the kids of some of his friends. To make our families even friendlier. An alliance between the families...something like that. You get the picture. Unfortunately, these guys share my Father's opinion on humans..." Ah, I get the picture now. They hate humans and when they found out that Jorrun was getting married to a human...

"Wait, how did they even find out about this? I mean, if your family would rather think you're dead, I don't think they'd just go and tell that you're getting married to Lucy. I just don't think they'd tell everyone, if they like their public image so much," I give my insight into the situation.

"I already thought about it. I have no idea how they found out. It doesn't matter anyway. We need to find them and take Lucy back. If they're not going to give her back willingly, we'll just have to use force," Jorrun said, patting his pistol for emphasize. "Another good way to spite Father and his bigoted buddies, I guess."

The car started to descend and within a minute we landed in front of a small apartment building. It wasn't really small, but ten stories is actually small compared to the giant sky-scraper like buildings that are all over the place. "Are they in here?" I ask, looking at the building with trepidition.

"No. I have no idea where they took her," Jorrun replied as he got out of the car and checked his pistol.

"So...why are we here?" I ask, doing the same thing with my own weapon. If Jorrun was suiting up for trouble, it was a smart thing to prepare as well.

"Because someone who knows where to find them lives in this very building, and we are going to give him a visit," he said, his voice completely casual.

I had to admit that I was very nervous as I followed Jorrun into the building. Jorrun was pissed, very, _very_ pissed off. I had the awful feeling that Jorrun was going to kill someone if the way he was fingering his weapon was any indication. He walked inside without hesitation and called the elevator. It soon arrived and we rose to the seventh floor. I was awfully glad to know that this elevator wasn't as slow as the other ones I used. Those elevators were slower than continental drift.

Jorrun walked over to a particular door and activated his omni-tool. He stood there, fiddling with it for about thirty seconds before the door opened with a hiss and he walked inside. I followed him after a moment of hesitation.

It was a medium-sized apartment, at least by my standards. A large living room with a couch, a coffee table and a huge TV and several other rooms. On the couch sat a very surprised turian who was looking at us with his mouth hanging open. I couldn't really blame him. I'd have that expression too if an armed turian would burst into my house with no warning. Before he could actually do anything, Jorrun was already upon him, slamming his foot into the turian's face.

The turian yelped in pain as Jorrun quickly followed with a punch to the face that dropped him off the couch and onto the floor. "Hello Orin, how are you?" Jorrun asked in a manner you would say to a friend you met while grocery shopping.

"Jorrun, what the hell are you doing?" Orin yelled in anger and tried to get up, though he quickly froze when Jorrun patted his pistol.

"Let's see..." Jorrun slowly said, walking over to Orin in a very slow, and honestly creepy manner. "an acquaintance of ours happened to take someone from me...someone I want back," Jorrun said in length, speaking slowly and clearly as if Orin was a child.

"Look, I don't know what you're talking ab-" he was interrupted by another kick, this time to the ribs.

"Oh, but you do know what I'm talking about," Jorrun said sweetly. He looked at the table. "What do we have here?" he said to himself, pointing at the...burger on the table. I cant help but look at him weirdly. He was distracted by a...hamburger?

"A burger," Orin growled back, probably as confused as me.

"What kind of burger?" Jorrun asked, picking up the burger and inspecting it. Orin remained silent for too long, in Jorrun's opinion, and earned himself another kick.

"A dextro-burger," Orin answered as he rubbed his aching ribs.

"Do you mind if I take a bite?" Jorrun asked, not waiting for an answer as he bit into the food. He hummed in pleasure a few times. "Now this is good stuff."

At that moment I was gaping at Jorrun in disbelief. I swear I've seen this somewhere before and it was officially freaking me out. A noise interrupted everything that was going on in the room as one of the doors opened and another turian entered the room. "Orin, whats going on? I heard you ye..." the turian froze as he stared at us.

Faster than anyone could react Jorrun whipped out his pistol, unfolded is and released one shot. The turian jerked back and the wall behind him was sprayed in dark blue blood. He stood there for a few seconds before he fell on his back, a small hole directly in his forehead. We all, with the exception of Jorrun himself yell out at the sudden action. I loudly scream 'Motherfucker!' while Orin just whimpers in fright.

I stare at Jorrun in shocks. He just shot a guy without warning! For fuck's sake Joe, _warn me next time_! Jorrun looks to be completely unbothered by the fact he just killed someone. In fact, he took another bite from the burger and hummed in delight. "Now this is a fine burger!" he exclaimed before he dumped the half-eaten hamburger to the table. "Oh, look at this. Tupari. Do you mind if I have a drink?" he politely asked, again not waiting for an answer.

Jorrun picked up the tupari bottle and started drinking loudly, making loud gulping noises. "Ah, now this is refreshing," he remarked, throwing the bottle to the corner of the room. "Now, back to business," he said with a sudden shift in attitude, becoming the angry and serious Jorrun, which I liked more, now that I saw the calm and insane Jorrun.

"Spirits, I'll tell you everything, just don't kill me!" Orin yelled in panic.

"Oh? Are you sure? I thought you didn't know anything," Jorrun growled, kicking him again. "You're the only one who knew I was dating Lucy! I should just shoot you in the face simply for finding out!" he yelled, this time kicking him in the face.

"It's Norus, it's Norus!" Orin shouted in panic. Jorrun froze at the name, looking at Orin with wide eyes...until he exploded, punching him in the face with a furious growl.

"Where is he?" he growled in his face, lifting poor Orin up by his neck. "tell me!" he roared into his face.

"I'll tell you, just...just let me transfer the data to you," Orin pleaded. Jorrun looked at him for several seconds and finally released him after nearly a minute. Orin quickly activated his omni-tool and transferred the data to Jorrun.

Jorrun inspected the data for what seemed like forever before he deactivated his omni-tool and looked Orin dead in the eye. "If I find out this address if fake, that no one's there...I'm going to come back here, stab you, strangle you and shoot you in the head. I'll make you suffer so much that you will beg me to kill you," he slowly said with an even tone. I actually felt shivers go down my spine when I heard him say it. It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.

Orin nodded, jerking his head up and down, and stepped away. However before he could get to safety, Jorrun lifted the gun again and pulled the trigger once. I jumped again at the sudden gunshot and Orin fell down with a pain-filled yell as his knee was shot. "This is to make sure you remember what I said...and to make sure you don't get very far," he calmly said as he holstered his gun. He gave me a pointed look and jerked his head towards the exit. I silently followed him outside, still shocked by what I just saw.

I will never admit it to anyone, but at that moment I was truly scared of Jorrun. What I saw there wasn't Jorrun, the snarky bouncer from Chora's Den, but Jorrun the ruthless soldier. I knew that the turian could be brutal sometimes, or had some ruthless views about some matters, but to see him kill that guy so casually, without even blinking...

"What the fuck happened in there?" I quietly ask as we step into the elevator.

"What do you mean?" he asks, looking at me with confusion.

I actually gape at him. He's not joking, it's genuine confusion he's looking at me with! "You just executed that other guy just for showing up!" I nearly yell at him. Fuck, you don't just do things like that!

"No, I shot him to get Orin talking. I needed this information and in order to get the real thing, I needed him to believe that I was going to kill him," Jorrun explained, looking annoyed.

"But...you cant just kill people like that...he didn't do anything!" I exclaim. I'm talking about not harming innocents here. I'm kinda willing to shoot bad guys here, but I'm _not _going to shoot innocent people.

"He's not innocent. Think of it like this. He was freely walking in enemy camp, which makes him the enemy," Jorrun tells me, making me feel disturbed by that logic. He looked me straight in the eye. "And I got rid of the enemy."

I sigh at that. I was not going to argue with him about these things. I wont win the argument anyway, since I suck at arguments, especially important ones. I also knew that I would never succeed in changing Jorrun's mind about how to do things. "Who the hell is Orin anyway? And why the fuck did you shoot him?"

I snorted at the name. "Orin was part of our squad. Cowardly little bastard. He quit the army at first opportunity and moved to the Citadel. I talked with him on occasion, since he was actually the most tolerable of the squad, believe it or not. If someone knows where to find these bastards, it would be him. He keeps tabs on us, which is how I found out the guys who kidnapped Lucy now belong to a mercenary group," he paused there, tearing his eyes away from me. "And I shot him to make sure he gave me the right information, and not just a dead end to get rid of me."

I frown at that. Huh, I guess shooting his friend was _not_ enough to make sure he gave you the truth. Your logic is astounding my friend. I think Jorrun is even more paranoid than me, and I sleep with my pistol near the bed. Then again, I don't know how Jorrun sleeps, and I actually don't want to know.

"By the way..." I begin, my mind going back to a particular moment. "what the fuck was up with the burger?" I ask, giving him my best 'what the fuck?' look.

He shrugged. "I saw it in a old human vid once. It was pretty funny when I saw it," he said in disinterest. "besides, I was hungry," he looked back with an award-winning 'can you blame me?' look.

I resist the urge to groan. Things always look more funny on screen than in real life. If you try to do supposedly funny things in real life, most of the time it will make you look like a psycho. Though I think I actually saw the vid Jorrun watched. What he did there was definitely familiar, which freaks me out even more.

The elevator finally arrives to the ground floor and we quickly march out of the building towards the car. Much to my surprise, I saw Telbin and Johnson standing – or in Johnson's case, sitting – near our car, apparently waiting for us, already armed and ready. Johnson was in his usual armor, carrying his usual arsenal of weapons and I saw Telbin's sniper rifle peeking out from behind his back.

As we approached them I couldn't help but ask one question. I just had to know. "Were you really planning to kill Orin if he didn't have the information you needed?" I quietly asked, refusing to look at his face, not wanting to see his expression. I had the feeling it would be utterly uncaring.

"Yes," was the simple reply, said with a casual tone that sent shivers down my spine. Shows what I know. I'm not sure how to feel about it at all. More importantly, I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that I still consider him one of my best friends, despite the fact that I just witnessed the coldblooded killer he's been hiding this whole time. Damn, I guess this shows that I didn't know him as much as I thought.

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><p><strong>Okay, dont murder me. But how many of you actually expected that Jorrun was daring the barmaid? Huh? I left some hints but...well, they are <em>extremely<em> subtle and I think that only I can see them, much to my dismay.**** As you saw, there were many, many revelations today, like Jorrun's background. And yes, if you do know what 'human vid' Jorrun is talking about, you do get a cookie, even though it's incredibly easy, since EVERYONE saw it. What can I say, it was on TV as I was writing this. :P**

**Well, again, dont murder me. You can consider this as me dropping my first 'What the fuck?' plot twist. It's not much of a twist, but just the result of my shitty hints. Regardless, I hope you still loved this chapter. Next chapter is going to be...well, I want to say epic, but we shall see how it turns out. I have plans and I'll start writing it shortly.**

**Thanks for everyone who supported the story so far. I've never in my life recieved so many reviews in such a short while, so many favs and alert and so many damn hits! 2721 hits! It's the most I ever had. So thanks a lot, you people rock! Also, help me reach 9000 hits, because I _reaaaaalllyyyyy_ want to do the 'Its over 9000!****' thing!**

**So...yeah, thanks for reading. Leave a comment and tell me what you thought of this chapter. I actually really want to know what you think. Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Here we go! A new chapter is out and this would probably conclude this situation and you will finally find out what happens with Lucy! Or not. I dont know (well, I _do_ know, since I'm the author and all that), read the chapter to find out!**

**Without any delays, here is the 10th chapter!**

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><p>Jorrun quickly explained the situation to Johnson and Tilben, though I noted that he omitted a lot of details. The only thing he told them was the fact that Lucy was kidnapped and we had to get her back. It made me wonder why he didn't tell them a thing. It left me with two options. Either they already knew his story, which I was willing to believe, or Jorrun simply trusted me more, which flattered me quite a bit. I've never had that many people trust me that much, other than some of my friends. This is still different though, since I never prepared to go kill people with my old friends.<p>

So now we were back in the car, flying towards the next address, where Lucy was supposedly held. "Would like to know what we are up against," Tilben said in his usual manner, which was fast and to the point.

Jorrun hummed in thought. "I'm not entirely sure of their numbers, my best guess would be from six to ten but again, I'm not sure. They all have military training so they're not some punks you throw out of the club," the last part was said for me, I think. He was looking at me when he said that.

"Roger that," I say, internally smirking. I always wanted a good reason to say that and this 'operation' was a damn good reason in my opinion.

The rest of the ride went quietly, for the most part. Jorrun listed off ways to deal with the guys we're about to fight, mostly for my sake I suspected, since all of the ways he listed were the general 'stick to cover' and 'pick your shots' variant that Johnson probably learned ages ago and Tilben didn't need. Tilben was our sniper and I really doubted he'd get close enough to get shot at. I was personally thankful for the already-known advice Jorrun was giving. It showed that he cared that I stayed alive.

"Alright, we're approaching the location," Jorrun announced fifteen minutes later. The aircar slowly landed and we climbed out to the street. My eyes were immediately drawn to the building in front of us. It was a small building in Citadel standards, just five-stories tall. It had the unusual run-down appearance that was so uncommon here on the Citadel, where almost everything looked shiny and new. From this place I could hear muffled music coming from the building.

"Okay, this is how we're gonna do this," Jorrun announced as we prepared our equipment, in my case making sure my shields were up and pistol operable. "Tilben and Johnson, you stay outside, make sure _no one_ gets out. If this somehow goes wrong and they try to escape, I want you to be there and stop them before they even manage to take out step outside. Alex and I will head inside and take Lucy back. Is everything clear?" Jorrun said in a manner that showed his military experience, as if this was a briefing before a mission, which kinda was true. I gulped at his plan. He wanted me to go inside with him? I was both flattered and scared out of my mind at that prospect. My experience with firefights was close to nothing and I think that Johnson would be a better choice. Then again, Jorrun wanted me to go with him, which meant he thought I could handle myself. I certainly hoped so. Everyone gave him a firm nod and he returned one with a small smirk as he unfolded his pistol. "Let's move."

As on we started our mission. Tilben once again ran off to somewhere, probably a high position, while Johnson ran off to cover the other exit while me and Jorrun entered the building.

The lobby was thankfully empty. Other than that, I noted that the place was surprisingly dirty and close to breaking apart. I guess the keepers haven't been here yet. Jorrun walked inside silently, a fact that surprised me greatly. I couldn't even hear his steps, and he was a lot heavier than me. He inspected the elevator for several seconds before he muttered a curse and lead the way to the staircase. "The elevator is not working, we'll have to do this the hard way. I head in first, you follow behind and cover my back," he says quietly. I give him a nod and without any delays, he starts climbing up. I wait for several seconds before I follow after him.

The stairway was square in design with a wide gap between the opposing stairs. This would be a good way to look down and see if someone was climbing up if you were looking from the upper floors. For that reason, I pressed myself against the wall and slowly walked up.

I managed to make it to the first floor before something happened. I heard some noise from the floor above me. It reminded me of something...being punched? A moment later something blue falls down in front of me, smacks against the railing in front of me and falls down to the ground floor. I stifle a surprised yell with my hand as I look at the railing where the object hit. That nearly gave me a heart attack! I look at the railing and see the dark blue stain on it and then I realized that the object was actually...a person. I slowly look down beyond the railing and see a turian on the floor, a small puddle of blood forming under his head. I took note that his neck was bent in a very unnatural angle. He also happened to wear the classic blue suns armor. Yep, I was write. I'm dealing with blue suns here. I look up and see Jorrun looking down at me. I send him a questioning look, hoping to get an answer why he threw the guy down. I got a shrug in response.

Angrily muttering under my breath about crazy turians I quickly climb up the stairs and meet up with Jorrun at the second floor. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I hiss at him, making sure not to talk too loudly.

"I needed to get rid of the body!" Jorrun defended himself indignantly. Oh great, he threw a dead guy at me. This makes it so much better. "They're on this floor, by the way," he added, turning to face the door.

Well, I could figure it out by myself, considering the loud music that was coming from beyond the closed door. Other than this floor, the building seemed to be completely abandoned. My detective skills were not really impressive but I easily saw the think layer of dust that rested of the stairs leading to the third floor. Didn't look like anyone went up there in a long time. This left the floor we were currently on.

"Listen..." Jorrun looked at me with utmost seriousness, placing a talon on my shoulder. "I know you can do this. Just like in our training. Just aim and shoot and stick to cover. Lucy's life depends on it," he reminded me. He knows how I'm nervous about killing people, which is probably why he's giving me this talk. But he's right. If I screw up here, Lucy might die. I give him a nod to assure him I wont screw this up. Now I just need to convince myself. "Good. Get ready,"

With a one flowing movement, Jorrun opened the door and stepped inside...right into the path of a blue sun merc. The merc's jaw dropped at the sight. "Jor-" he started to say but was interrupted by Jorrun slamming the pistol into his face and pulling the trigger. His head jerked back with a small spray of blood and he fell on his back. I stared at surprise for several seconds before I realized that everyone in the building probably heard the shot, even with the loud music.

Several loud shouts came to our attention as a couple of turian mercs walked out of the rooms, their guns already raised. Beyond the door was a long corridor, filled with doors which probably lead to the other apartments. There wasn't really a lot of places to use as cover, other than the rooms.

Jorrun quickly dived into the closest door just as the mercs started shooting. I stayed in the stairway, pressing myself against the door frame. They didn't know I was there yet, which was good in my opinion. Jurron leaned out of the apartment and shot an Overload at the closet merc and at that moment I leaned out of my cover.

I aimed my weapon at the the turian that now lost his shields. With just a split second of hesitation I pulled the trigger three times. The turian stepped back as each shot hit him in the chest, before he fell to the floor and his buddy started shooting at me, but at that point I was already behind cover. Fuck, I just killed another man. I decided to ignore that for now, so I simply ignored the hesitation and any second thoughts. Lucy relied on us and my hesitation might get her killed.

Jorrun leaned out of cover again, pulling the trigger with the speed of a machinegun. The merc's shields collapsed in a few shots and before he could do something about it, a bullet caught him in the face, dropping him to the floor.

And just like that, we were already moving further into the complex. Jorrun ran to the next room while I jumped in the room Jorrun just occupied. Two more mercs came out from the farthest rooms, already shooting at us. I lean back beyond the door frame as the bullets ping against it.

Fuck! This is just like training, just like training. Another barrage hits my cover and I take several steps away from the door frame. Goddammit! This is crazy! I open my omni-tool and prepare an Overload. I was until Jorrun will draw the fire to himself and lean out of cover again, aim my hand at the shooting merc and release the Overload. A small amount of sparks shoot out from the merc's armor but the shield is still there. As I said, my Overload was still weak in comparison to the military-grade ones. I see his shields flicker on and off, as if they are unsure whether to collapse or keep working. It doesn't matter to Jorrun though, as one shot from him finally collapses the shield and the second shot catches him in the head. The second merc falls to our combined fire within several seconds.

We move on, exiting our cover and running to the end of the corridor. Just as we were halfway through the corridor two things happened at once. A merc rushed out from the room in front of us but Jorrun silenced him by slamming the handle of his pistol into his face and my vision was blinded by bright sparks of electricity and my shields failed. Oh, shit, was I just hit with an Overload? Apparently yes, since the next thing I feel is an incredible burning pain in my right leg, which makes me trip as I place my weight on that leg.

I growl through clenched teeth as the pain in my leg floods my senses and half limp half hop on one leg to the nearest room...right into a waiting merc. His assault rifle is thankfully not aimed at me. In fact, he looks more surprised than me, which I definitely use to my advantage. I raise my pistol, aim it at his face and pull the trigger. Only nothing happens. At that point I see the small amount of steam rising from the pistol. Shit, the Overload overheated my gun. Just fucking great.

The merc doesn't waste time on capitalizing on my problem. He slaps my pistol away with a fist, sending it to the corner of the room but I'm not just going to let him shoot me. I charge at him and shove him into the room, grabbing his rifle to keep him from aiming it at me. A scream escapes me as my wounded leg sends waves of agony each time I used it.

The rooms, which by now I realized were small apartments, were not very large. Just a single room, a bathroom, a window and a bed in the center of the room. To my luck, this room had a bed, which probably saved my life. As I pushed him into the room, I happened to push him towards the bed. One of his legs tripped on the bed and we fell to the floor. I landed on top of him and used the momentary break to wring the rifle away from him. I wanted to aim the rifle at him but he stopped me by punching me in the face, removing me from him.

Despite being in pain I tried to aim the rifle again as the turian was getting up but failed as he gave it a kick, sending it to the corner of the room and away from me. Apparently I pissed the guy off since he didn't even bother to take the rifle and shoot me. I guess he wanted to kill me with his bare hands...or talons, whatever. Neither way worked for me. He grabbed me by the front of my shirt and lifted me up, surprising me with his strength. I wasn't about to let him just beat me up. I swing a fist and it connects with his face. Unfortunately, I think I harmed myself more than him.

This was probably the most prominent reason why I always lost in my spars with Jorrun. As Grunt would say it, humans are soft, turians, not so much. My punches or kicks harmed him much less than his harmed me. These guys had natural armor while I just had my skin...which was soft and easy to puncture. Not a very good protection. Thankfully, my bones were quite sturdy, since I never broke a single one in my life and I did some stupid shit that should've left me with a broken bone or two.

As such, my punch didn't really do much. Unfortunately, the bastard played dirty. As I tried to punch him again the bastard released me. I landed on my feet but as I placed my weight on my leg the stab of pain interrupted my attack. Even worse, he capitalized on it and kicked me right in the wound.

The pain that flooded me was simply nauseating. My breath hitched and I just wanted to scream in pain. This was the worst pain I felt in my life. My leg buckled under me and I fell to my knee. The turian followed up with a kick that caught me on the side of my head. My vision was swimming, I couldn't hear properly and the most prominent thing I felt was pain. The merc lifted me up again and shoved me against the wall, knocking the air out of my lungs and pressed his forearm against my neck.

Fuck, I was being suffocated here. I didn't have that much air in my lungs to begin with. I was still a bit woozy but now at least I could see clearly. I beat on his arm, trying to knock it away but it was like a beating on a stone wall. I tried kicking out but it didn't work since only one leg wasn't enough to shove him away. Punching him didn't work either. The corners of my vision started to darken as my lungs screamed for air. By the nine hells, I had to do something or I'll fucking die! I looked into his eyes and froze, a very useful idea hitting me.

I lifted a hand, the turian tensed, probably expecting another punch. What he surely didn't expect was me poking him in the left eye. I used both my index and middle finger and I poked hard. Considering the sudden sticky wetness that surrounded my the whole of my fingers, I think I poked way too hard.

With a scream of pure agony he removed his arm, allowing me to drop to the floor. I inhaled the air as if it was the most precious thing in the world and at the moment, it actually was. I coughed several times as my lungs adjusted to suddenly having air again and I looked up at the turian to see him blindly stomping around, yelling bloody rage at me.

I frantically looked around and my eyes landed on the assault rifle, lying of the floor about two meters from me. I crawled over to the rifle, using my hands and one knee to get there quickly and grabbed it as if it was a treasure. At that point the turian got over the pain and decided to release all his rage by beating me to a pulp. I grabbed the rifle and rolled onto my back just as the merc was stomping his way to me, growling loudly.

I looked at his face and saw only a single eye glaring at me. His other eyes was closed shut, dark blue blood seeping out of it in frightening amounts. Holy shit, I actually poked his eyes out! No time to dwell on it though, I had a crazed merc to take down. I aimed the rifle from the hip, no time to aim it properly, not that it mattered in this distance, and pulled the trigger. I nearly lost my grip on the rifle as the recoil nearly made me shoot the ceiling, but I quickly tightened my hold on it and stabilized it enough at keep it aimed at the turian. This was way different than shooting a damn pistol.

The turian spasms as the bullets penetrate his armor and his flesh, getting pushed back until he fell against the wall, leaving a blood trail as he slowly slid to the floor.

I stare at the dead turian for several seconds, breathing heavily and still feeling quite terrified. I rub my aching throat as I move myself to a sitting position and inspect my leg for the first time. Yep, its a gunshot wound, much to my dismay. A small, clean hole right in my thing. The whole area was soaked with blood and it was pulsing in pain. The fingers I used to poke the turian's eye was coating with alien blood and other fluids, much to my disgust. I wiped my fingers against my already blood-soaked leg. God, I hope this injury is not serious. Fuck, I am _never_ getting into close combat with a turian ever again. Not without armor and definitely not with a wounded leg.

Damn, I cant let myself bleed out now. I never treated a gunshot wound before, hell, I never even saw one before. I limp over to the bed and try to rip the bed sheets. Apparently, bed sheets 170 years into the future are much more resilient, as I couldn't even create a small tear. I look around the room and my eyes fall on a small knife in the turian's belt. I limp over to the body and pick up the knife, ignoring my discomfort at looting a dead body.

I quickly tear a generous amount of fabric from the sheets and tie them around the wound, growling in pain as I tie it. I have no idea what I'm doing, but that's what people do in movies. Hopefully there is some truth in it and I don't end up killing my leg. God, I have no idea how to use medi-gel. I don't even have medi-gel!

Standing up with a groan of pain I limp out of the room, picking up my pistol and holstering it in the usual place. I'm keeping this rifle, no matter what. It's my damn trophy as far as I'm concerned. I nearly died. Besides, I think I actually need to learn how to handle other weapons, besides my trusty pistol.

Okay, now where the fuck was Jorrun. I carefully step out into the corridor, making sure there weren't anymore surprise mercs lying in wait. The corridor was empty, though I noticed two more dead bodies that weren't here before. I wasn't hearing gunshots, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. It could mean that Jorrun killed everyone, or it could mean that Jorrun's dead.

I limp to the end of the corridor where I see a locked door. Okay, I'm confused now. Where the hell is Jorrun? I move closer to the locked door and I could barely hear muffled voices inside. I couldn't discern who they belonged to, but it was enough for me. I need to find a way inside. I look around, and my eyes land on the door to the neighboring apartment. I guess I could always start there.

The door slides open with a hiss and I walk inside, my rifle already shouldered as I make sure that no one is there. The room is empty and I allow myself to relax as I search the room for some way to get to Jorrun, if he's even there. My eyes finally land on the balcony. Okay, I think I'm about to do something stupid again, but I'm willing to ignore it for now. I slide open the glass door and walk out and look at where the neighboring room is. To my delight, I see another balcony, and I could hear the voices talking again. I take a good look at the distance between the balconies and I think I can actually cross it. Holy shit, I'm actually thinking about jumping over to the other balcony. I've finally become insane enough for this galaxy. Not sure if its a good thing though. I quickly realize that I have nowhere to place the rifle I just obtained, since I have no magnetic plates on my clothes, other than the plate on my belt, which held my pistol. Fuck, too bad I cant keep my trophy. I leave it on the balcony with a small sense of regret.

I climb on the railing and place my hands on the wall to stabilize myself. It would be quite embarrassing, and deadly, if I slipped and fell to my death after going through all of this. It wasn't that far in all honesty, just about two meters by my estimation. I just bigger distances when I was doing the whole parkour thing. Though back then I was never doing something like this at this height. I brace myself, reminding myself that I only have one working leg. I take a deep breath, mostly to calm myself and jump.

I don't actually manage to jump over the railing, or land on it. Instead, my chest smacks against the railing but I manage to grab it with my hands. Now I find myself hanging from the second floor. Not exactly a deadly height, unless I land on my head, but I will surely break something if I fall. With some effort I manage to climb over the railing, once again breathing heavily, though this time probably from the adrenaline.

I stand up and take out my pistol and look at the balcony door, which was opened. From this position I could finally see what was in the room. I saw Jorrun standing near the locked door aiming his weapon at the turian who was standing with his back to me. I noted that said turian was not wearing the blue suns armor like everyone else. The most alarming detail was the blond woman, Lucy, sitting on a chair, held in place by the gun aimed at her head, courtesy of the turian. I couldn't see her face from here but if I was in her place, I'd be damn terrified. I slowly and as quietly as possible approach the balcony door to give myself a better angle to shoot, just in case. I saw Jorrun's eyes flicker at me for just a split second before they returned to the turian. And as I got closer to the door, I could finally hear what they were saying.

"...your old friend? I bet you enjoyed killing them, traitor," the turian spat at him. I suddenly got the feeling that the turian was during a...monologue. I don't know how, I just knew.

"Shut the hell up Norus. Why are you doing this?" Jorrun growled. "What the fuck have I ever done to you?"

Ah, so this was the Norus guy Orin told us about. It seems that Jorrun knows him but I have no idea how they're related to each other and why he would kidnap Lucy. "What have you done? You betrayed the family!" Norus yelled. "You shamed us! If you hadn't decided to..._marry_," he spat the word and pressed his gun against Lucy's temple. "this bitch, I would've left you alone. But you betrayed us even further and then you even decided to _spit_ on our name!"

"I fucking left! I got out of your lives! Why the fuck did you decide to get involved with _my_ life?" Jorrun yelled back, visibly angry. "Why the hell couldn't you just leave me alone?"

"Mother cried when you left. Father was always angry. Things settled for a while but then we hear that you are about to marry a _human_ of all things, things simply shattered. You ruined our family Jorrun, you ruined everything," Norus said with barely-held anger. "So I came to ruin yours."

Wait, mother? Father? Wait, are they...holy crap. They're related! Wow, this sucks for Jorrun. This sucks a lot. I slowly creep to the open door and take aim, just in case.

"_Our_ family? I wasn't part of _your_ family for a long time now. You always hated me because I was _father's_ favorite," Jorrun growled back, steadying his aim.

"When you left, things got a bit better. Father was angry and I had to replace you when things settled down. And then we received news of your engagement and everything broke down. Once again it was Jorrun this and Jorrun that. You just cant leave us alone!" Norus yelled angrily.

Wait...what the fuck? I really hope I misheard something but I think that Norus caused this mess because of a...sibling rivalry? I cant help it. In my opinion Norus is a moron. A complete, utter and probably insane moron. I'm completely at disbelief here.

"So why did you do this? To remind me how much better I am than you?" Jorrun asked with a deadly glare.

Norus laughed at that. "No. I'm here to kill your bitch. I'm here to make you pay for ruining our family. I'm here to end the mess that you started," Norus stated with finality and looked over at Lucy, breaking eye-contact for the first time since I entered the scene.

I saw his arm tense, a nasty gleam appeared in his eyes and I knew that time was up. I had no time to aim and shoot. Norus probably had his shields and my shot would just bounce off. Instead I did the only thing I could, considering he still didn't know I was in the room. I charged at Lucy. For a split second, I saw his eyes widen in surprise as he finally spotted me but it was already too late. I tackled Lucy to the floor and because the gun was pressed into her head, I ended up knocking it away as well, leaving Norus completely open. I covered Lucy with my body and heard three shots that tore through the silence.

I looked up and saw Norus lying on the ground, unmoving. Jorrun slowly approached Norus and kicked his gun away. I looked back down at Lucy, who was looking at me with both surprise and fear. I saw a nasty bruise forming on her left eyes, probably from a punch or something. It somewhat made me glad that we killed these assholes.

Lucy quickly got up to her feet and tackled Jorrun with a hug. Jorrun held her tightly as I watched their reunion. From the way Lucy's shoulder were shaking and sobs I could hear I guessed she was crying. Well, cant blame her for it. She was just held hostage for a stupid sibling rivalry!

Jorrun looked at me for several seconds before his eyes landed on my blood-soaked bandaged leg. "You okay?" he asked me with concern.

I groaned at the question, still lying on the floor. "I was shot, beaten up and nearly choked to death. I feel like crap," I stated with conviction. This was the worst day of my life. Period. I gave him a questioning look. "How about you?" I ask softly. Man, he probably feels like shit.

"I just killed over half of my childhood friends and shot my own brother," Jorrun said in monotone. "how do you think I feel?"

I winced at his words. Yeah, I think he feels like shit. Who wouldn't? Jorrun was running his talons through Lucy's hair, tenderly assuring her that everything will be fine. It was quite weird to see Jorrun so...gentle with something. But...it was somewhat heartwarming. I was glad to know that Jorrun wasn't a complete merciless psycho. What I was seeing here now made me know that.

I climb to my feet with a groan, both from the pain in my leg and because I was utterly exhausted. "Come on, let's get out of here," I said to the pair. Jorrun gave me a wordless nod and we slowly started walking to the door. However, a weak chuckle made us freeze.

I turn back and see Norus looking at us with his omni-tool active. "You're right," he croaked weakly, looking directly at Jorrun. "You were, and always will be better than me. But I am your brother and I know you," he chuckled again. "I knew you'd come to rescue her and I knew you'd probably succeed. And that's why I was prepared," he finished, giving us a wicked turian grin, before he pressed a button on his omni-tool.

Before anyone could do anything, before Jorrun could shout out a warning, before I could even blink, a massive explosion drowned out all sound and I was sent flying off my feet.

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><p><strong>Oh my, would you look at that, a cliffhanger! I'm such a horrible person.<strong>

**So yeah, the 10th chapter is complete and I'm already working on the next one (I'm bored, what can I say?). One thing I'd like to point out, I have no idea how they actually holster the weapons so I went with the magnetic plates idea, since it's never elaborated anywhere. And yeah, I searched for it, and didnt find any useful information regarding the subject. So if you think I'm wrong, or you know something that I dont, feel free to point it out, and gloat if you want to, I wont mind. :P**

**So yeah, next chapter should be here soon. I'd like to thank all the awesome people who read this story and for placing it on your fav and alert list and for reviewing it. I'm awesomely glad you loved the story. Thanks for the support. I love you people! As for everyone else, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think. If you spotted a mistake or a flaw in the story or some of the information I have, again, feel free to point it out. That was I'll avoid doing it again and this will help the story in the long run. Once again, thanks and until next time, Delvaro out.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hah, judging by the amount of positive reaction (1 positive reaction) that I got from the last chapter, I guess I actually pissed you off by putting that cliffhanger there. Well, then, sorry. I'll try not to put them again...maybe. We'll see about that. Regardless, this chapter has the conclusion of the whole kidnapping fiasco, so enjoy the chapter!**

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><p>I hit the wall hard...or was it the floor? I'm really unsure what was what at this moment. Everything is a blur, I have a killer headache and I want to throw up. I dazedly look around, trying to make sense of what was going on. There's a lot of smoke and the lights died, so its pretty dark. There is a lot of debris and for some reason there is a hole in the apartment I passed through to get to this room. Something wet dribbles into my right eye and I wipe it away. I look at my finger and see blood. I furrow my brow in confusion, wondering where the blood came from. I finger my forehead and my finger lands on a wet gash right above my right eyebrow. Ow, I was bleeding.<p>

Something shakes me and I look up to see Jorrun though for some odd reason his mouth was moving but now words came out. At that point I realized. I was the one who couldn't hear him. It was this weird sensation I saw in movies and some games. Everything is blurry and there's this weird ringing noise in my ears. It looks cool in the movies and games but now that it happened to me personally, I have to change my opinion on it.

And just like that, it suddenly goes away and I'm blasted with the noise around me. "Alex!" Jorrun roars into my face.

"What?" I ask, shaking my head to get rid of the odd sensation I was feeling. "What the hell just happened? Why is everything so...broken?" I ask, looking around. Fuck, it looked like a...my eyes widened in realization.

"Norus fucking brought a bomb with him!" Jorrun answered in my stead. "We need to get the fuck out of here!"

Wordlessly I get up and nearly fall when a wave of nausea and dizziness hit me. I manage to keep myself stable and not to put too much weight on my injured leg. I look at Jorrun who was picking up Lucy...who wasn't moving. Oh shit, I hope she's just unconscious. She cant just die like that after we rescued her.

The door was partially blown up, which probably saved our asses, considering the state it was in. It was utterly bent out of shape with a large scorch mark on the other side. Regardless, we couldn't pass though it now. We quickly move, in my case, limp through the broken wall into the neighboring apartment and into the corridor. The whole place is filled with smoke and I cough several times when I breathed too deeply at first. When we finally get to the corridor we see the destruction. Half of the corridor was completely blown apart, leaving the apartments without any walls between them. To make it even worse, the whole place was on fire. Goddamn, Norus rigged the whole place up! It wasn't just a bomb, it was _bombs_. Plural! What an insane son of a bitch.

I follow Jorrun as he leads the way to the staircase, making sure to stay away from the fires. Fuck, this place looks like it's been through hell, both figuratively and literally. It's incredibly hard to see with all the smoke and it's also hard to breathe properly. And my leg is really killing me. I cant help but wince every time I take a step and it constantly pulses in pain.

Thankfully, we manage to reach the stairway with no trouble. Unfortunately, it was the point where my luck ran out completely. Just as we were approaching the door to the stairway I heard a loud crack above me. I look up just in time to see the ceiling breaking apart. Oh fuck. By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss! Fuck you world! I jump back just as it collapses, sending dust, debris and fire into the corridor.

I managed to roll out of the way and I felt something hot on my leg. I look at it and see a small spot on fire. I quickly pat it to extinguish the flames and stand up to inspect the damage. "Alex!" I hear Jorrun shout beyond the now-blocked corridor. "Are you there?"

Damn, if this blockade wasn't on fire, I would've managed to climb through a gap or something. As it is now, I'm stuck here. "I'm okay! Get out of here!" I shout back as I desperately look around for another way to get out.

"What? Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you here by yourself!" Jorrun shouts back.

I'm honestly touched by now. But right now he had bigger problems than myself. "Get Lucy to safety! I'll find a way out! Get the fuck out of here!" I shout back as I move back into the building, coughing several times from all the shouting.

Another cracking and groaning sound deafened me and the room where Norus kept Lucy was now buried beneath tons of debris. Fuck, if the smoke and fire wont kill me, the collapsing building will. Goddamn! Why the fuck is it collapsing anyway? Did he actually rig the whole freaking building to explode? A bit of an overkill, really. Then again, so far Jorrun turned out to be pretty badass.

Alright, I need a way out, quickly. I need to see my situation first. I'm stuck on the second floor of a burning building that is collapsing. The way out is blocked...which only leaves the window. But I don't really want to break my legs, or worse, my neck by jumping out of the window. I need a safer way to get down.

I limp into the closest room, which miraculously survived through the explosion...most of it at least. Most of the objects were still strewn around, but the structure is intact. I walk over to the window and take out my pistol to remove the glass shards so I wont cut myself. When I finished the task I leaned out of the window and looked down. Okay, this was definitely too high to jump for me. I don't want to break my legs. Even worse, if I jump and break my legs, the building could topple down on me, considering my luck so far. Damn you all to the hells! Why the fuck all the villains must insist on causing destruction even as they die? Damn, I need a way to get down...

I look around the room for several seconds and finally my eyes land me on the bed sheets. My mood immediately improves when I start to think of a plan. I move around the floor, cautious of the fire and collect all the bed sheets and other things I could use as a rope. Unfortunately, the fire already swallowed nearly half of the floor and I'm not left with much to work with and I'm not ready to risk myself with the fire. When all is through, I go back to the safe room and tie the ends of the sheets together. Unfortunately, this simply is not enough to get me to the ground safely.

I look out of the window again and I see that the window on the floor below is intact. This means that there was no explosion there, much to my pleasure and it should be relatively safe. Theoretically, I have enough rope to get to the first floor and from there I can safely get out if there's no fire there.

With my mind made up I quickly check the bed, which is bolted to the floor, much to my pleasure and confusion. Why would you bolt the bed to the floor anyway? I decided to ignore that confusing fact and tied the makeshift rope to the bed and approached the window. The fabric is tough, as I discovered earlier and it should hold my weight. Now...I only needed a way to get down.

I could rappel down, but I never did it before so I might screw this up. I finally decided to do something that was theoretically stupid. After all, I saw it in a movie once but every movie has some truth in it. Besides, SWAT do it too. It was simple. I'll just rappel into the window, break it and land in the first floor. I think I can do it. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

I hold my rope tightly and climb up to the windowsill. I look down to determine the distance and the length of rope I should hold. It would be bad if I end up smacking against the wall after all. With another deep breath that I used to calm myself down, I jumped down.

A scream escaped me as I fell down, mostly because I was doing something utterly insane that I would never do otherwise. Then again, I never expected to end up on the Citadel...or get into a firefight in an abandoned building and then have the building explode after we defeat the villain. This is pure insanity and I think I'm insane for actually doing what I'm doing now.

I see the window, I see myself swinging into it and feel my mood lift that I actually calculated it right. I brace myself for the impact, making sure to leave my injured leg behind. I don't really want to smack it against the glass. I was flying into the window now and I held my breath and got ready for the impact and the breaking glass...

And I smacked against the window as if it was a solid metal wall and bounced back.

_What The Fuck_? By Torm's hairy balls, this is the future, _of course_ they will have reinforced glass! I am so stunned by this turn of events that the rope slips away from my grasp...and I fall down to the ground, one story below me. Oh, fuck!

I manage to flair my limbs about several times before I feel a lot of pain and everything drops into darkness.

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><p>I groan loudly when I open my eyes and what I see baffles me slightly. I see the burning building I was just in...but I was also moving. Then I feel that someone is actually dragging me. I twist my head and see the familiar form of Tilben above me. "Huh?" was the intelligent response.<p>

"Oh, good. You're awake. Dragged you out of danger zone," he quickly explained and then looked at me, offering me a small smile. "Your plan was impressive, though..." he paused and sniffed loudly. "The execution left a lot to be desired. Should have considered glass density."

What? And then it flows back into my mind. By Azura's tits, I just smacked against the window and fell down. By the nine hells, this is the most embarrassing thing that could've happened and to make it worse, Tilben actually saw it! Now _no one_ will ever let me forget it! "Fuck you," I groan out.

"I'll pass. Already applied medi-gel to your wound, though seeing medical help is advised," Tilben replied. Oh, that's why my leg didn't hurt so much. My body though...ouch. "You received some bruises in the fall, but nothing that done any lasting damage. You're lucky," the salarian concluded.

Oh fuck you Tilben. I was trapped in a collapsing and flaming building. I'm definitely not lucky! "Ugh, thanks, I guess. You can stop dragging me now by the way, I think I can walk by myself," I say. Without any warning Tilben lets go of me and I accidentally hit my head on the floor. Ow! What an ass! I have a killer headache as it is.

I rise to my feet, still feeling very uncomfortable when I stood on my injured leg. We walked, well I limped but Tilben was actually nice enough to walk in my pace, over to the cars and there I saw a very concerned Jorrun jogging to us. "You're alive!" He exclaimed when he stopped in front of me and started inspecting me, probably looking for more bullet holes.

"Yeah. Still feel like shit though. Had to jump out of the window...didn't end well," I explain, omitting the detail where I definitely embarrassed myself. If Jorrun would find out...he will never let me forget it, not until the day I die at least.

"Well, nothing is broken. That's good. I know how fragile you humans are," Jorrun said with relief.

"How's Lucy?" I ask with a generous amount of concern. Hey, I risked my life to save her. I will feel extremely upset if after all this she ended up dying.

"She's fine. Just a few bruises here and there. The explosion knocked her out, nothing more than that. She'll live," Jorrun said happily, looking quite excited. I breathe a sigh of relief. "You on the other hand...we should really get you to the hospital."

I look down at the hole in my leg and wince, giving him a nod. I really want the wound healed. I couldn't even walk properly, and I loved walking, thank you very much. We walked over to the car, climbed inside and took off before C-sec would arrive, since by now they definitely know that something was going on here. We sped through the air...or space, I'm not entirely sure. Still couldn't decide what it was, flying towards the closest hospital.

When I allowed myself to relax I finally realized just how exhausted I really was. I haven't slept nearly a whole day, I was shot, I fell from a high place, lost consciousness and more importantly, was in a building that happened to explode. I think I was entitled for some rest. Not before long we were already landing in front of the hospital, which much to my surprise was the hospital I visited when I just arrived to the Citadel.. Before I could get out of the car Jorrun placed a hand on my should, making me look at him curiously.

"Give me your gun for now. Don't want anyone asking you questions," he said with a smile. Huh, that makes sense. I take my pistol and hand it over to him. "Just tell them you were mugged by an angry turian or something. Make something up," he advised and I nodded in agreement. I wasn't going to tell them I just killed two turians anyway. That would be stupid...and might end with me being thrown to jail. "And...you did a good job today. Thanks," he said awkwardly. I gave him a tired half-smile. I knew that Jorrun had some weird problem with thanking people, mostly me, but I didn't mind. I knew that he was thankful and that was enough.

I get out of the car, wave them off and enter the hospital. Time to treat my injuries.

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><p>Much to my pleasure I actually managed to get a long nap while staying there. I was still amazed at how advanced the medicine was. When in my time it could take someone weeks to get over a gunshot wounds here...it took merely days. In fact, they told me I'll be released this very day! Which was pretty insane for me. They told me to rest after the whole procedure and I gladly accepted their offer and slept until early evening. My thigh didn't throb in pain anymore and I was told that I'll have a limp for the next few days at most.<p>

Right now I was checking through my omni-tool messages. I just got a message from Johnson, telling me to get to Flux later this evening for a drink or two. From experience I knew that when Johnson said a drink or two he pretty much meant a gallon or two. The guy was immune to alcohol, since I never actually saw him even slightly drunk.

"A safe and quiet job?" someone asked. I look to the room entrance and see a man with dark brown hair and a doctor's coat leaning against the door frame, giving me a small smirk. I look for a few seconds, trying to connect a name to the incredibly familiar face. Ah, now I remember! Doctor Morrison!

"What do you mean?" I ask, inviting him in with a hand gesture.

"When you said you were getting a job, I assumed you talked about a job that wont get you shot," he elaborated.

"Ah. No, that wasn't because of my job. As I already told almost anyone who asked, I was mugged. I resisted, ran away but got shot in the leg before I could get to safety," I repeated the cover story with exasperation. I have no idea why everyone was so damn curious. I think I repeated this story at least a dozen times by now.

"Hmm, so you wouldn't have anything to do with a particular burned down building on the other side of the ward?" he asked, his smirk growing slightly.

Oh, hells. Why was he asking me _this_? I know for sure that I didn't say anything to anyone. Maybe someone else said something. Shit, I was panicking. I hope my expression didn't betray anything. "Nope. As I said, I was mugged," I said with the calmest voice I could.

"Oh," Morrison said with a thoughtful frown. "then I guess I just imagined the smell of smoke that stuck to your clothes...and the turian blood that was smeared on your pants," he finished with a shrug.

By the nine hells, I think he knew. Shit. Okay, I've got to keep myself calm. I really don't need any problems with the law right now, especially this close to Eden Prime. "Yep, I think you imagined it. As for the turian blood, as I said, I resisted. In the 'poking out yer eye' style, so if you see a one-eyed turian running around here, be sure to report him to C-sec," I say with a sly smirk.

He hummed in thought. "Whatever you say. I'm your doctor, not your wife. What you do in your free time is not my business, as long as you don't grow extra organs inside of yourself," he said. I gave him a weird look, which he quickly noticed. "Don't ask, we had a human patient a while ago and we found that he was growing an extra lung. Freaky business," he said the last part to himself, shaking his head in amazement.

Okay, growing organs. I think he was talking about Doctor Saleon, with the whole organ cloning business that he had. Huh, it happened already, huh? Odd that I haven't heard a thing, then again, I never actually follow the news. "So about my health," I change the subject.

"Clean bill. You can even leave now, though your leg will be a bit uncomfortable for a day or two. You should be back to normal in a day or two," he concluded. "Your bruises will be gone by tomorrow, so yeah. You're completely healthy, for now. Hopefully your safe and quiet job will continue to be safe and quiet," he added with a sly smirk. Oh Doc, if you only knew what I was planning.

"Thanks a lot!" I thanked him. "Though...do you have something to help me walk? I hate limping," I ask, hoping to maybe get some useful medicine. I haven't even seen anyone using crutches so I go on a blind guess and assume no one needs them anymore.

"Sure, I can arrange something for you," he said with a shrug and beckoned me to follow him.

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><p>Johnson let out a loud barking laugh when I finally made it to Flux. "What the hells is that thing?" he asked me between laughs, pointing at the object I was holding.<p>

I looked down at my brand new cane and shrugged. "Be careful, it might just shove it down your throat," I said cheerfully, shutting him up, for now. I didn't even really need the cane, but damn it, I love canes. Now I actually have a genuine excuse to use one. Besides, it was made from metal and it was a good object I could use to shut up Johnson with. Screw you Hugh Laurie, I have a futuristic _foldable_ cane! Beat that, hah!

"You actually need that thing?" Jorrun asked me curiously.

I looked at the table more closely and saw to my surprise not only the regular bunch but Lucy sitting beside Jorrun as well. That was unusual, since Lucy mostly hanged out exclusively with Joe and me. "Not really, but I look damn awesome with it," I reply, giving another shrug. "And people give me space in elevators, thinking I'm a cripple or something," I add with a small smirk as I fold my cane, which it does with a lovely 'cha-chik' noise, and take a seat at the table.

"Alex," Lucy called, I look over to her and give her a big smile. It was good to know that she was fine. She was even smiling at me now. "thanks for helping save my life and all that. I heard that you did a pretty good job, all things considered," she said with her usual smirk.

"Nah, I was glad to help, Joe did most of the job anyway," I say sheepishly. In all honestly, I think I sucked back there. I was beaten up thoroughly by that merc.

"Damn right I did," Jorrun agreed with a nod. "though you did do a good job, considering you're pretty lame," he added. Aw, how nice of him. A compliment and an insult in the same phrase. "Actually, I would've thought you're pretty cool if you hadn't screwed up your escape by smacking into the window," he noted as an afterthought.

Johnson loudly snickered and Tilben coughed loudly. Damn asshole. I glare at Jorrun while Lucy gives me a confused look. "What happened?" she asked.

"After the explosion knocked out Alex got trapped in the burning building. So in order to escape he decided to rappel from the second floor into the first floor window and escape from there. Unfortunately, he ended up smacking against the window, not breaking it and then to top it off, losing his rope and falling all the way down. From what Tilben tells me, it looked impressive," Jorrun recounts. Lucy looked at with amusement while I gave Tilben my best glare.

"Bah! To the hells with you, as if you could do better in that situation," I mutter to myself, unfortunately loud enough for them to hear.

"Well, yeah, we _can_ do better," Johnson remarked with a chuckle. My glare shifted to him, which only made him laugh more.

"Screw you," I tell him and look back to Jorrun and Lucy. "So how are you holding up, with being kidnapped and all?"

"Well..." Lucy gave Jorrun a concerned look. "We will be leaving the Citadel in two weeks," she announced. This made me freeze and look at them with wide eyes. _What_? Leave? Why? All of these questions were running through my mind but Lucy interrupted me before I could open my mouth. "We'll be back, don't worry. We're going to take a shuttle to Earth, to meet my parents," she clarified, calming me down.

"I see. And how are you're parents dealing with the fact that you're marrying...you know, an alien?" I ask, getting a frown from Jorrun.

"Actually..." Jorrun breaks into the conversation. "her parents are pretty...open minded, I guess. They're willing to give me a chance. I talked with them before through a call or two, but they want to meet me in person," he explained in a resigned manner with a large sigh. "We we're kinda putting off until now. After this mess Lucy decided that we should give them a visit, while we can," he added with a snort.

Lucy didn't look bothered by what he said. "Hey, I just want you to meet my parents before another crazy relative of yours tries to kill me," she replied in a deadpan. Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Jorrun even winces at that.

"Well," Johnson interrupted us. "let's hope that _this_ family reunion will go better than the last one," he said with a small chuckle, lifting his glass for a toast. I look down and see that all of us already have glasses in front of us. When the hell did that happen? We had no drinks when I arrived...Well, I cant just ignore this. When someone says a toast, you gotta go with it. Besides, I'm not the one paying for the drinks anyway. "To your damn marriage, or whatever it is you're planning to do," Johnson said. Okay, that was a bit...brutish, but I guess it works, since neither Jorrun or Lucy seem to mind. They're probably got used to him.

I drown the bitter and burning liquor and cough one time when it burns my throat. Holy shit! What the hell is this thing? I drank vodka before but this shit is _burning_! "What the hell is this?" I croak as I watch Johnson drown his glass of the same thing I just drank, without any reaction whatsoever.

"That, my friend, is genuine batarian ale, and the good stuff too," he says proudly, even puffing out his chest. "And you better drink it, because it cost me a damn fortune!" he added, pointing a finger at my now-empty glass and brought the bottle to refill it.

Oh damn. I have experience with drunk people and most of them tend to get annoyed when you refuse to drink with them. Then again, I didn't actually mind, since this ale burned my throat in the right way. Besides, I was extremely tired, even with the nap I took earlier, and I _really_ needed a drink after a day this fucked up.

And so, without anymore complaints, I drowned my second shot.

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><p>I groan, mostly in pain the moment I wake up. For some horrible reason, my brain could only comprehend two things: everything was painful and everything was spinning. I opened my eyes and was struck by the abomination called light. I was blinded by the damn lamp above me and it sent even more waves of pain, dizziness and nausea through me.<p>

"Will you shut up?" some close by said. "drunk idiots..."

I groan again at that. Wow, I think I have the biggest hangover in the world. I squint open my eyes and sit up on the bed, which was surprisingly difficult to do. Through squinted eyes I realized that I was definitely not home. I groan again, mostly because of my throbbing head. I'm in a relatively small room. Bland gray walls are around me, no windows, only one door and two cots, one of which I was sitting on and the other one was occupied by a bearded human man.

"Did anyone get the name of the krogan who stomped on my head?" I ask, rubbing my poor aching head. "and where the fuck am I?"

The bearded guy looked at me, I noticed that he had a pretty nasty black eye, and snorted. "You're at C-sec kid. They dumped you here during the night," he answered.

Wait, C-sec? What the fucking hell happened? How the hell did I end up here? I look around again and realize that I'm a holding cell. By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss, how did this happen? I try to remember what happened but for some reason, I couldn't remember a thing after the sixth shot of that batarian ale. Oh, god. I'm never drinking alien stuff ever again.

"So what are you in here for? Did you beat up an officer or something? What's your crime?" the guy asked. He was trying to start a conversation with me and I couldn't actually blame him. Judging by his beard, I can guess that he's in this place for several days now. Then again, it was possible that he had the beard before he got here, who knows? I don't really care anyway, since I kinda had bigger problems.

"_My_ crime? It's a serious one," I say slyly, or try to. "you see, I'm too handsome to look upon," I finish with a halfhearted smirk. The guy snorts in laughter and I cant help but do it too, considering I must look like utter crap at the moment.

Ugh, I really needed a drink. It felt as I had sandpaper in my throat. Before I could complain though, the door slid open and my hopes to get a glass of water rose tremendously. "Rise and shine!" a flanging voice greeted loudly, making my ears throb in pain, which I didn't fail to broadcast by groaning loudly. "Mr...**********, would you care to follow me?" the turian, judging by the voice, asked. For some reason, the voice was terribly familiar.

With a sigh I stood up, groaning once again as my muscles protested against the action. "See ya," I said to the bearded guy, who waved me in goodbye before I left the holding cell.

"So, why am I here anyway?" I ask hoarsely and look at the turian. And promptly freeze when I realize why the voice was so damn familiar. The same voice, the same blue face marks and the same nifty visor. I cant help but just gape at the person in front of me.

I was standing in front of Garrus Vakarian.

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><p><strong>Hehehe, now who was expecting this turn of events? I bet you also wonder how the hell did he end up in C-sec. Well, the reason will be answered next chapter. So just wait until then. Sorry. :P Heh, it was fun writing this chapter. And meeting Shepard gets closer and closer. Hell, I have Garrus right here! Soon enough, I will get to the events of the first game. <strong>

**Again, I can only guess how medicine is at that time. And I think I just guessed that gunshot wounds are easy to treat because...well, how everyone pretty much shrugs off any 'flesh wound' or minor gunshot wounds...or heal by the next scene. Meh, dunno. Anyway, thanks for the support I'm getting so far (616 hits in a single day! :O) and all the reviews I get from you. You make me feel awesome. Thanks again, and until next time, Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Woohoo, chapter 12 already :D This is damn aweosme. So yeah, after the nice cliffy I left last time, I finally update it. I promise that this time there will be no cliffhanger. So dont get angsty on me :P Yeah, this chapter is shorter than the last and...yeah. Well, I really dont have much to say now.**

**Oh, on a note, I do have something to say. One of my reviewers, Anon Fanfic Reader, pointed out that I constantly switch tenses. Yeah, no that I read the earlier chapters, I notice that he's right! And to make it even worse,_ I wasnt even noticing it!_** **Oddly enough, I actually have a logical explanation.**** This is the first story I write from the first person POV. Since I really got used writing in the classic way, where the past tense is used more frequently, if not always, I sometimes automatically switch back to past tense and sometimes by the next paragraph I switch back to present tense and _I wasnt even registering it! _****Yeah, it quite stupid of me but since this reviewer pointed it out and I actually paid attention to it now, I believe you will see it less frequently now.**** I'm not exactly that good in the gramatics, but I will make sure to not mix up the tenses anymore. Thanks Anon Fanfic Reviewer for pointing it out ^^**

**Now, without anymore delays, since thankfully no one pointed out any other mistakes I made, here is the new chapter!**

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><p>Holy fucking shit. I cant believe this. This is so utterly surreal. Here I am, standing in front of Garrus fucking Vakarian in all his glory. Holy crap, I think I was <em>arrested<em> by Garrus! Its like...its like being arrested by Steven Seagal. No, wait, no one wants to be arrested by him, since he kinda sucks. It's like getting arrested by John McClane! Yeah, its exactly like being arrested by him. But still, holy crap! I was standing in front of Garrus Vakarian! I'm seriously geeking out here!

"Is...something wrong?" Garrus asks in concern, looking at me oddly.

Oh crap, I'm actually gaping at him. I quickly snap my mouth shut and clear my throat. "Uh, no. Nothing's wrong. Uh, call me Alex. Everyone does," I quickly say.

He looks at me for several seconds before he replied. "Detective Garrus Vakarian," he introduced himself, not that he needed, since I kinda already knew him. Not that he knew about it.

Okay, now I need to play this cool. First of all, I can already see how this could go wrong. Garrus is a detective and a cop. What if he discovers that I killed people, and was a sort-of-criminal and then will tell Shepard about it and then she wont want to take me with her? This will be catastrophic. Then again, she took...will take _Wrex_ with her, and he's not exactly a role model. For the most part. Wrex is awesome like that.

"Detective?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Time to put my actor skills to work. Hopefully they're good enough to fool a detective. "I...uh, this is embarrassing but I don't really remember last night...so, did I do anything?" I ask sheepishly. Unfortunately, Garrus didn't answer.

By that time we were already moving through through place. I had to admit that I had no idea where we were but then again, I think that the game didnt actually show the whole C-sec complex on the Citadel anyway. Eventually, several minutes after I was released from the holding cell we arrived to a small office. It was small, just a desk, which happened to have a lot of file on its in a very artistic mess, a computer screen and two chairs. Holy crap, I think I was in Garrus' office. Garrus took a seat behind the desk while I nervously sat down in the chair in front of him.

"I just need to ask you several questions about yesterday's event...that you probably heard of by now," he explained, typing something into his computer.

"Uh, ask away," I say, trying to make myself comfortable. Damn, I hope I didn't leave any clues there. Damn, if I get arrested, it would suck on so many levels...

"Yesterday you arrived to the hospital with a gunshot wound, shortly after a building exploded, where we found over a dozen turian bodies and evidence of a firefight," he said gruffly, typing away, which I assumed was the report. Wow, I think he's more annoyed by the report writing than the unsolved crime. At least I hope it's unsolved. Oh god, what if I'm the prime suspect?

"As I already said, I was mugged. Do I need to tell you the detailed story?" I ask, getting a nod from Garrus. "Okay, I was going to start my morning run and took several shortcuts through alleys to get to the Presidium quicker. Unfortunately, this turian jumped on me in one of the alleys, demanding me to give him everything I had. I, uh, resisted," I pause there, trying to look nervous. Garrus was looking at me expectantly. "I, uh...kinda poked his eyes out," I finish nervously. "After that I ran away but the guy took out a gun and started shooting. I managed to almost get away but one shot hit me in the leg," I finish, tapping my wounded leg.

"Huh," Garrus said to himself. "Alright. How did he look?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure how to describe a turian, or what you look for when you try to find a particular one, but he was a bit taller than me, had red face markings and...well, he probably has one eye now so it would be easier to find him," I supply, giving him the description of the turian I killed. Good, I think he no longer suspects me!

"Alright, we'll look for him when we can, if you want to press charges," he says in a bored, slightly disappointed manner.

Wow, I think I ruined the mood for him. Then again, if I was looking for someone who killed a lot of turians and blew up a building and my only lead turned out to be just some guy who was mugged...I'd be disappointed too. "No no, I think that poking his eye out was enough of a punishment for him," I quickly say. That and I killed him, so I doubt I'd get any money from him now. Wow, I hope I didn't set up a random turian now. What if there is a one-eyed turian here on the Citadel who did nothing wrong? "Besides, if you want to catch him you could just check out the hospitals, since it's probably the first place he went after he finished with me."

Garrus gave me a silent nod and typed something until he finished and gave me a long look. "Okay, I'll be blunt with you. I'm not sure you're telling me the whole truth. If you know something that could help me with this investigation...I will be very grateful," he said, folding his arms in front of him. One of his mandibles twitched, a sure sign of annoyance.

Oh, fuck. Shit, shit shit! He suspects me! I try not to show any surprise at his accusation and I think I actually succeeded. Somewhat. I raise a surprised eyebrow at him, trying to look doubtful. "Hey, I was in the market area near Flux. I heard the explosion was on another ward altogether. Why am I here anyway?" I finally ask. I want to know, so you better answer to me Garrus!

He stared a hole into my head for about a minute before he sighed. "For now, until we find anything to connect you to the explosion, you're off the hook. If you don't mind, we would want to ask you more questions later."

"Sure, I have no problems with it," I say with a shrug. Hopefully this wont cause problems in the long run.

"As for why you're here..." he said, looking into his omni-tool. His eyes slightly widened and his mandibles spread into a small smirk. "You had too much drinks last night. Way too much. After you left Flux, you apparently started disturbing public order by waving your...cane around and shouting rather loudly that...krogans needed a hug," he finished, clearing his throat and looking at me with a large amount of amusement.

I was just looking at him with a look mixed with horror, shock and once again, horror. By the nine hells, this...this was just embarrassing. And to make it worse..._Garrus _knew about it now. Oh god, if I join Shepard, he will never let me forget about this. Fuck, he's probably going to announce it to the whole freaking ship! What the fuck? Where were Jorrun and the others when I was making an idiot out of myself?

Note to self, never drink again. At least, anything alien-made. Apparently I become an idiot after I drink enough alien liquor.

I groan and palm my face. My headache only got worse now. "Ugh, so now that I'm sober enough...can I go home now?" I plead, hoping Garrus would let me go now.

"Yeah. We have nothing to keep you here. If we have anymore questions for you, we will drop by. We know where to find you," Garrus said, standing up and beckoning me to follow him.

Okay, that sounded quite...unnerving. The whole 'we know where to find you' made me feel like I was going to get kidnapped during the night, or something like that. I wonder if they knew I worked in Chora's Den, and by proxy for Fist. I had a feeling that they knew exactly what Fist was doing, only they didn't have any evidence to do anything about it. When I think about it, I guess it kinda gives them a reason to be suspicious of me. I do work for Fist after all. Only what happened yesterday had nothing to do with Fist, not that I could actually explain it.

So I stand up and follow Garrus, who was nice enough to show me the way out. Man, this is a catastrophe. I don't think Garrus likes me, since he probably thinks I'm a criminal now. It's quite sad that I actually am a criminal by proxy for the most part. At least I don't go around murdering people. Damn, I hope this wont screw me in the long run.

"Well, it was nice to meet you," I say with a smile once we finally reach the exit.

"Likewise," Garrus replied, though the manner he said it made me think he didn't really mean it. "Hopefully I wont have to see you again," and with that he turned around and left. Yep, he definitely doesn't like me. Well, once we get to the Normandy, if I get there, he'll warm up. I hope.

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><p>"What the fuck did you make me do?" I shout as I enter Chora's Den and see Jorrun and the gang sitting by one of the tables. As soon as they see me Johnson cracked up and broke into a fit of laughter. Another fine detail that I noticed was the fact that Gormul was glaring daggers at me. If looks could kill, I would be a stain on the floor by now.<p>

"Oh trust me, we did nothing. You just cant hold your liquor!" Johnson shot back. Oh screw you Johnson, I know you did something to me. I'm never a shouting drunk. If I get drunk, I'm just cheerful, but I never start shouting and...disturbing public order, or whatever it was.

"Screw you, you probably made me do something!" I say with a severe frown, glancing at Gormul, who still looked like he wanted to kill me. "and why the hell did you allow C-sec to take me?"

This makes them laugh even more. "Well, you kinda tried to make them help you hug a krogan, and once they refused, you tried beating them up with your cane, yelling something about them showing no respect for a cripple," Jorrun explained with a snicker. "You actually thought we would stick around once you start embarrassing us? No way, we have a reputation to uphold," he explained, still not looking at me.

"And a certain style that you were cramping up," this came, much to my surprise from Tilben. I give him a weird look, honestly not expecting him to care about style.

"Geez, you're such good friends," I sigh.

"Let that be a lesson for you," Jorrun said sagely. "never try to outdrink Johnson. Because you certainly did try, and fail." What? I actually tried to do that? Wow, I'm definitely not drinking anymore. At least for a long, long while. For some reason, that batarian ale made me come up with really idiotic ideas. "Oh, and you might want to stay away from Gormul for a while. I think he's worried you might try to give him a surprise hug or something," he added as an afterthought, coupled with a smirk. Oh, that definitely explains the glares I'm getting from him.

"I'll keep that in mind. By the way, I was questioned about what happened yesterday. About a certain building blowing up," I say, causing them to shut up, much to my relief. This quickly catches their attention.

As I recount them the conversation with Garrus with great detail and voice my worries, surprisingly its Johnson who calms me down. Since he's somewhat a veteran in this business, he told that C-sec might just keep and eye on me for a few weeks or a month and then give up since they hate wasting resources for nothing. He had some good advice too. If I just act normally, not do anything suspicious and not do anything stupid, they'd just leave me alone. Telbin said that I shouldn't even change my schedule. I need to act exactly like I acted before, else they might suspect something.

This also meant I was banned from the 'bonus pay' jobs until further notice, since I was probably under surveillance for now. Johnson joked about the whole situation, telling me that I just got my C-sec cherry popped, since everyone working here was arrested once or twice before and been through the whole thing already. This definitely made me worry less, since no one's in jail as far as I know.

Damn, I just need to survive three more months without getting into trouble. After that...I don't know. I'm definitely entertaining thoughts about staying here to help Shepard but...can I really leave my family without a word? Bah, I need to think about this.

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><p>Two weeks passed quickly. Much too quickly for my taste. I did as I was advised and didn't make any changes to my lifestyle. I still went out early for my morning runs every day and visited the gym regularly. I actually noticed that there were a lot of C-sec officers around me now, though I did my best to ignore their presence and let them do their work. Not that I was going to help them with anything. I made sure not to do anything suspicious. I just acted normally. Hell, I even saw Garrus one morning. I gave him a wave but he pointedly ignored me. Wow, what a nice guy. I really hope he will give up soon enough.<p>

I was actually surprised about how quickly I got over the fact that I killed those two blue suns turians. It was weird, since I never even thought about them that much and when I did, I just shrugged it off, which disturbed me. It was as if suddenly killing these guys was not such a horrible thing to do. That line of thought was actually justified since they kidnapped Lucy and actually hit her a few times. I consider her a friend and in my eyes, those guys deserved a beating. Not sure if they deserved to die though, but I'm not going to beat myself thinking about it. They died and that's it.

As for Lucy and Jorrun...it was surprising how quickly two weeks passed. It felt as if it was only yesterday they told me about their plan to leave for a while. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Jorrun was admittedly one of my best friends. Considering I haven't seen my friends in three years ever since I moved out of my last home before I arrived to the Citadel...it was safe to say that Jorrun was my _only_ friend.

I wasn't sure how to feel about it either. On one hand, I supported him and wished him good luck and wanted him to be happy. On the other I didn't want him to leave. I still had Tilben and Johnson but they were more like...good acquaintances than actual friends. I don't even know much about them other than their names and a few details about their pasts. Actually, I didn't actually know anything about Tilben other than his name and him being a sniper. And I couldn't talk with them like I did with Jorrun. With Jorrun I could just talk about...stuff. Entirely random things. I could just be carefree and bask in our banter without any worry. With the others...it just wasn't there. I actually needed a reason to speak to Tilben and I just couldn't find anything in common with Johnson, mostly because the gaps in our ages and experience. I just couldn't connect with them as I could with Jorrun.

And finally, the fateful day came. I dejectedly got dressed and make my way to the designated docking bay to see Jorrun and Lucy off the station. It doesn't take too long, since by now – much to my amazement – I got used to the aircars, since they are drastically less frightening when Jorrun's not the one driving. Compared to that, the autopilot of the aircar is like those tea-cup rides in the amusement parks.

This reminded me that I didn't have a cup of good tea for ages now. The crap that was sold here on the Citadel was utter shit. However, I did find that extranet website where they sold genuine asari tea, which sounded simply exotic in my opinion. I'll have to get some to try it out.

I reach the public docking bay a bit earlier that I expected but that doesn't really bother me. Still, the place is quite crowded with the passengers that were slowly walking into the large shuttle and the families and friends that came to see them off. I was slightly surprised to see a large amount of aliens that were heading to Earth. Salarians, asari and even turians. Maybe the tourism on Earth is popular or something, I have no idea.

I wasted my time listening to popular turian music, which much to my shock sounded exactly like rock music. They definitely had drums and there was this instrument that sounded suspiciously like an electric guitar. I definitely knew that it was a guitar, since I knew how to play a guitar and owned one, but I just couldn't help but assume it was something else. What are the odds that two different species will develop two identical musical instruments? Still, it was a pleasant surprise to find out that one of the most popular music styles on Palaven sounded exactly like human rock music. Too bad I had no idea what they were singing about, since they sand in their native language. Then again, I listened to Rammstein without knowing German, so I could listen to this and still enjoy the music.

Soon enough I finally caught sight of the pair I was waiting for. They were dressed casually and I noticed that they only carried one bag, probably deciding not to bring all their stuff with them. This cheered me up somewhat, knowing that they would return eventually.

"We're not late I hope?" Lucy asked, worriedly looking at the people around and then at the shuttle.

"Nope, you're just on time. Early, in fact. I just came earlier," I answer, calming her down.

"Good," Jorrun said, looking at the shuttle.

We stood there for about half an hour, talking about their plans. They decided to spend Christmas with her parents, which will be in about two weeks, and after that she wanted to show Jorrun how Earth was. They had no idea how long it will take but they estimated that it could take them a couple of months at the least. While I wont admit it, I actually wanted to come along as well, to see how far Earth has come, see what I missed. I knew that it probably wasn't that impressive for the most part, since some of our problems STILL weren't solved, like the homelessness problem, among other problems, which made a lot of the races look down on us from what I read on the extranet. On the other hand, architecture was probably awesome by now, with all the futuristic buildings that were around. I actually wanted to see how Moscow looked like now. In person, preferably, since watching pictures simply didn't have the same effect.

Eventually, our time ran out. A female voice announced through the loudspeakers that all passengers had to board the shuttle now or miss it.

"Take care," Lucy said, giving me a warm hug that I gladly returned. "Don't get into trouble," she added as an afterthought. She grabbed her bag and walked into the shuttle, leaving me with Jorrun.

"Well mate, I gotta say that it's going to be boring without you," I say with a half-smile, not feeling exactly happy about it. "good luck and please, try not to act like an ass in front of her parents. And try to have some fun," I quickly advise him, earning a small smirk from him.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll definitely have fun. You on the other hand..." he paused there, looking at me seriously. "don't do anything stupid. I don't want to come back and find out the club was burned down or blown up," he says with a short chuckle.

Wow. I cant help but cringe at his words, for an entirely different reason. If he wont return before Shepard arrived, that's _exactly_ what he will find. I get the feeling that he will somehow find a reason to blame that on me. The boarding message repeated and I knew that it was time. I hold out my hand for a handshake. Jorrun looks at it oddly for several seconds before he gives it a firm shake. "I'm glad I met you," I say with a smile. I had the urge to say something incredibly epic like 'It's been an honor' but it would just be too cheesy, even for me.

"Hmm, you make it sound like we wont see eachother again," Jorrun said quietly. "I'm just going on a trip. Relax," he adds with a smirk, though I can see that he's somewhat put off by my actions.

Well, I think I'll humor him. "I don't know man, without you, who is going to keep me in line? I think that I'll end up giving Gormul that surprise hug he always expects whenever I'm in the same room with him," I say dejectedly with an exaggerated pout.

This gets a laugh out of him. "Well, I guess I will see you later. Have fun," he says and roughly pats my shoulder. As usual, I think that pat left a bruise but it's the thought that matters, right?

"Yeah...see ya," I say to myself as he enters the shuttle and disappears from sight.

I remain standing at the same spot, watching as a couple of late passengers ran into the shuttle. The boarding message repeated for the third and last time. The shuttle doors closed, the bridge disconnected from the airlock and those clamp-thingies release the shuttle. Slowly and almost soundlessly the shuttle hovered back, turned around and flew out into the distance.

I stood there, watching the shuttle until it became a small speck in the distance and once I blinked, it completely escaped my sight. I stood there for a few more minutes looking into the distance, ignoring the people who were already leaving the bay, until I turned around with a heavy sigh and walked over to the elevators.

I knew that the chances of them returning before Shepard arrives were slim to none. Eden Prime would be attacked in about two months from now, more or less. This was quite possibly the last time I would see them in a long time. Maybe I wont see them again, if I choose to go back home or join Shepard and end up dying.

Man, this was a depressing day. Despite his flaws and possible mental instability, Jorrun was a damn nice guy and I would miss him. Now, I needed to find something to do to effectively pass the time. Unfortunately, I was just not in the mood. What I wanted to do right now was to go back to the hotel room, get myself something sweet to eat and then watch a movie or two.

To make a depressing day even _more_ depressing, I remembered that I still had to work tonight. With a loud curse that got the nearby people to look at me with disapproval and confusion, I entered the elevator and prepared for a _long_ ride.

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><p><strong>Yeah, admittedly the part with Garrus is rather...anti-climactic in my opinion and I honestly worry that I somehow got him wrong. <em>Please<em> tell me if Garrus is OOC here or something, since I'm very paranoid about this.**

**So yeah. Only two months are left until Shepard arrives. We are getting closer and closer to the events of ME1. I estimate that I will get there in a chapter or two, depends on my brain. I'm entirely unsure when the next chapter will come out, since I have to write a blood essay now (Oh, the horror!) and I need to hand it by tuesday or else I'll automatically fail my exams. Yeah, it's kinda important.**

**Thanks everyone for reviewing this story or just adding it to your fav and alert lists! Your support makes me feel, once again, incredibly awesome. Seriously. 4 days and I already have 1554 hits. It's bloody fantastic. If this keeps up I actually might reach my 'Over 9000!****' goal sooner than I expected. And if it happens sooner than I expected, I will feel so awesome that everyone near me will be _incinerated_ by the sheer aura of awesome that I will produce. ****Yeah, I'm not kidding. It will actually happen. If you hear on the news that some town in Russia was burned down in a magnificent and radiant fire of awesome, it means that I had over 9000 hits.  
><strong>

**Anyway, until next time, which is unknown for now, Delvaro out.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, I'm back! I hope you missed me because this is the weekend and I might squeeze in another chapter or two if I'm lucky. I have exams next week that I REALLY dont want to fail, since then it means I wasted three years of my life. So yeah, I'll probably be preparing like crazy after the weekend so you wont see much of me, much to my dismay. Hey, I like writing and these exams I'm about to have are scaring the crap out of me. Do you know how hard it is to memorize every single system in a car, and then having to know how each small part operates and what it does? Yeah, I have A LOT to memorize here, and the questions are drawn in random, so I cant really prepare for a specific topic, I have to prepare for EVERYTHING. Which is...the whole damn car. So yeah, hard times are to be had next week. Wish me luck. I'll try to squeeze in another chapter, as I already said, especially since we are approaching very fun and interesting times. **

**Also, I want to thank all the reviewers who told me their opinions and I'm really glad to know you loved the story so far! ****It does wonders to my self esteem when it comes to writing. Thanks again! Anyway, back to topic, this is actually a very short chapter, but also very important. You will see why in a few seconds. However, the chapter after this one is going to be way more interesting and I think longer too, since I'm kinda thinking about splitting it into two chapters, but I might not. We shall see when I get to it. So, go ahead and read the new chapter!**

**On a side note: Fuck you Bioware!**** Goddamn, you just made my fucking day. FUCK. YOU. Those who actually know what I'm talking about, and I know that some of you do, and why I'm practically pissing blood right now from sheer anger... you're are probably as pissed off and disappointed as me. Maybe not enough to piss ****blood, but still fucking angry. Once again, fuck you Bioware for spitting right into my face... exactly after stomping on my balls.**

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><p>It was hard to believe how boring my job was, now that Jorrun and Lucy said. Sure, sometimes Johnson and Tilben dropped by but it happened rarely. Most of the time I just stood by the wall and stared at people. It was so boring that I even considered throwing out Harkin, even though he was pretty much an untouchable. Fortunately, I quickly decided not to do that, since I think I have enough problems with C-sec by now. He and Fist had an agreement. No one touches him and C-sec won't bother them. Thankfully, Johnson was right. Soon enough I stopped seeing C-sec around me and I think they got bored with following me around.<p>

Annoyingly enough, the guys in charge decided to hire a replacement for Jorrun. They settled on another human, who I found to be very annoying. First of all, much to my horror I found that he was an idiot, at least in my opinion.

He was a big guy, almost two meters tall, bald and with a constant frown etched on his face. They hired him as a temporary replacement, just like they did with me and then, much to my horror, they instructed me to explain everything to him.

I had a major flashback to my own first day when Jorrun did the same and so, I did everything exactly as Jorrun did. I even gave him the same 'no one cares who you are' speech. That night was extremely boring, since the guy was not much of a talker and his main ways of communication were grunts, huffs and one-syllable words. It honestly felt like working with a human version of Gormul. At least he didn't hate me, much to my relief.

While he didn't look that intelligent, didn't say much and seemed to have more muscle than brain, he knew how to do the job. The first guy he threw out left some of his teeth by the bar. I think another one left a dent in the wall. Also, much to my horror, I think actually Gormul likes him.

* * *

><p>Time passed quickly, much to my surprise. Time had the annoying habit of slowing to a crawl when you were bored but thankfully it didn't do it this time. While I was bored, I was still pretty busy. I was going out to my morning runs, had the gym and my job. Jorrun also gave me access to my training warehouse before he left, so I practiced my firing skills when I had free time. I just had stuff to do to pass the time, much to my pleasure.<p>

Still, I was bored and I couldn't believe I actually _wanted_ to go on a job for Fist. I figure I actually went insane somewhere in the last few months that I actually wanted to go on a potentially dangerous task now. Thankfully, or not, since I'm not really sure if I'm the same guy anymore, they included me in the next job. It went without any troubles but there was something...thrilling when Gormul and the other guy were checking the goods and then we cautiously left, hoping this wont descend into a fight.

It was worrying that I actually found a thrill in it. I never remember myself actually wanting to be in danger, or looking for the thrill I was experiencing now. I had no idea what to make of it and I decided to simply file it away for now, since I had better things to do than to worry about suddenly becoming an adrenaline junkie.

Eden Prime was coming closer and closer and it was terrifying how fast it seemed sometimes. One moment it was two months and now it was less than two weeks. Where the hell the month and a half disappeared to? Why the hell time moved so fast? Much to my horror I realized that I had no idea whether I'm ready or not. Sure, I could shoot a gun and fight better now, as far as I know I'm decent in a firefight but...was I really ready for this?

Shepard and the Mass Effect 1 crew were probably the most dangerous people in the galaxy and I'm not even starting on the Mass Effect 2 crew. After all they did... or will do, it was pretty obvious that no one, other than the Reapers, could mess with them and come out in one piece. But the important question bothered me. Am I really up to par with their standards? I'd like to believe that yes, I am but a small part of me was worrying that I wasn't and that I would just be rejected.

Now the only thing I could do was wait, try to squeeze in a training session here and there and hope for the best. I try not to think about it too much, because then I get stuck in a thoughtful and sulking mood and my thoughts always end up straying to bad places, and I don't like bad places. I usually try to stay away from them as far as I can.

So this is what I was doing now. Waiting and preparing. Too bad I had no idea if I was emotionally prepared. Was I ready to go and save the galaxy? I want to say 'hell yes!' but somewhere deep inside I say 'dunno, maybe'. I hope I'll solve it by the time Shepard arrives.

I yawn as I finally leave the Den, saying goodbye to all the people I knew before I leave. Damn I'm exhausted. Sure, it was fun at the beginning and I could ignore the bad parts when Jorrun was there with me but now that I was alone, had no one to speak with and basically had no way to spend the time while working, this job was tormentingly boring.

I walk out and breathe in the fresh night air. Well, it wasn't actually fresh, but it was definitely fresher than the air inside the Den. I tiredly make my way to the hotel, ignoring everyone on the streets. When I finally enter my hotel room I simply collapse on the bed and fall asleep almost instantly.

I have no idea how long I was sleeping, especially with the Citadel not having a damn sun to shine into my eyes in the mornings, but the annoying pinging of my omni-tool woke me up. Usually messages just pinged once but when it was tagged as urgent, it just didn't stop until I answered it. This certainly gave me a damn good reason to shut off that function now. I _hate_ waking up like this! It gives me awful flashbacks to when I was waking up for school, and I hated school.

I rub my eyes and let out a massive yawn as I twist around in my bed to a more comfortable reading position. I quickly accept the message and squint open my eyes to see what whoever it was wanted from me. My eyes widened when I saw the name and the message.

_'Check out the news. I think you would find it interesting.' _

I blink at the message and then at the name. I haven't heard a word from the Chairman and now he sends me a message. I nearly forgot about him by now! Man, this reminds me why I kinda dislike him.

Regardless, I do as the message says and turn on the TV, quickly switching to the news channel. And as soon as I hear what's going on, I suddenly find myself fully awake. "... The human colony of Eden Prime came under attack by geth forces. What appears as a motiveless attack came to a conclusion with numerous human casualties, which are only growing. The Council dispatched reinforcements to the colony but many fear that by now it is already too late to save the colony from the geth..." I stop listening there, instead choosing to stare at the screen.

It was quite weird to watch events that I saw happen in the game on the news. I bet that Shepard is already on Eden Prime by now, kicking the geth off the planet.

But...it's beginning. The day is finally here. A weird type of weight settles down in my stomach and I find myself numbly staring at the TV screen, not really listening and not really watching. My brain was furiously working as I tried to think of what I was going to do now. I have no idea when Shepard would arrive, I had no idea how I would meet up with her. I cant just walk up to her and ask her to let me join them. I needed a damn good way to meet her and give her a damn good reason to want me on board.

My omni-tool pinged again and I look at the new message with bated breath.

_'P.S. Time to choose.'_

Damn, he's right. It's...hard to choose. On one hand I want to help Shepard. Who didn't ever dream about joining up with their favorite character and kick ass? I sure did but this is...real. I can die, I can get people killed. This wasn't just a fantasy... this was real. Can I just leave my old life behind? Leave me family alone like that without saying goodbye? Did they even know where I was? Did I die back there, or did I just vanish, just like that? All these questions were making my head hurt but damn, I needed to choose!

Fuck, I needed to prepare.

* * *

><p>Things were quite... odd, I must admit. Nothing major really changed, but I could see the subtle things if I looked hard enough. For one, Chora's Den had more human visitors looking for a drink. Most humans I saw on the Citadel looked more weary and worried, along with some aliens. The main topic in nearly every conversation I happened to overhear was about Eden Prime and the possible war against the geth. People were nervous, obviously. No one wanted another war, which was understandable. However, over half of the population dismissed it as a one-time event.<p>

Things were changing and people simply didn't want things to go bad. They preferred to ignore it and live their own peaceful life-style. Unfortunately for them, I actually knew what was going to come, which put me in quite an advantage. Then again, I wasn't really in a position to change things, since even Shepard couldn't change them, especially concerning the dumbasses that are the Council.

Regardless of all these things, I had no idea what to do. Not a word was said about Shepard saving the colony, so it might be classified for now... or something. Right now the only thing I knew I could do was hang out in the Den, which I was doing all the time, even when I wasn't working, and wait until Shepard gets here.

So far I've waited for a few days with nothing happening. It was just torturing, waiting for something to happen without knowing when it will happen. God, I just want to go and punch someone know. Maybe I should go and stalk Udina until Shepard will finally get here. Damn, I thought the mass relays instantly transported a ship to the destination, so what the hell was taking her so long to get here?

So right now I was sitting at the bar, drinking a tupari, since I wasn't in the mood for anything alcoholic and more importantly, I was planning. I had several ideas on how to approach Shepard or how to involve myself in the Saren investigation but so far, I had no effective ideas. Most of the stuff I came up with will make me look suspicious... especially considering that I actually had a reason to be suspicious. I had knowledge that I shouldn't have.

"Hard day?" Jenna asked as she was passing by.

"Heh, I wish," I reply with a small smile. Yeah, Jenna was actually rather nice and pretty much the only other person I never minded talking with. Though I had to stop myself from talking about C-sec with her, since she really got nervous whenever the topic came up, which is weird, considering it was somewhat suspicious. "I'm just extremely bored."

"I noticed. It's your day off," she remarked with a sympathetic look. I snort at her remark. It was common knowledge that whoever worked here never visited on their days off. Other than me, of course, but everyone thought I was weird anyway so it didn't really matter.

"Yeah," I groan out. "I don't have much to do, which is really sad. So instead of moping in my hotel room I guess I can sit here and drink something," I explain halfheartedly.

"You still live in that hotel? Why haven't you got an apartment yet?" she asked me with apparent confusion.

"Do you know how much an apartment costs? I don't think I earn enough to buy an apartment," I explain with a frown. Okay, actually I had no idea what was the price for an apartment, not that I wanted to check now. If it will turn out that I could get an apartment all this time... I think I'll kill myself. Living in that hotel room _sucked._

"Well, whatever suits you. I'm renting a small apartment and I only pay about fifteen thousand credits a month, which is pretty cheap," she says and then smirks when she sees my horrified look. Goddammit! I knew I could rent an apartment by now! I bet I actually pay more by staying in that hotel room. Goddamn! It was then that I noticed that she was no longer looking at me. In fact, she was worriedly looking at the entrance.

Huh, I wonder what made her so worried. I turn around and look at what caught her attention and... holy shit. I just stare, and probably gape with awe, worry and shock as one of the biggest krogans I've ever seen walked into the Den. He walked in with purpose, and he had that specific 'fuck with me and die' aura around him that made anyone standing in his way clear the path for him. The most prominent features that captured my attention was the red crest and the claw scars running right in front of his blood-red eye.

Urdnot Wrex has just entered Chora's Den.

Oh god, it was beginning and shit, I don't think I'm ready. But still, I'm pretty damn shocked to see Wrex in person. He looks _much_ more intimidating in person than in the game. The game didn't really show his body language like a real living being would. I could practically see his badassitude _ooze_ from him. His armor looked badass too, especially with it being the color of human blood, not that it was related but it was just what my human mind came up with. Damn, I'm geeking out here. If I didn't know that I would probably get punched right now, I would go and try to chat with him. Wrex looked pissed, and he came for Fist's head, so I'm not really keen on standing in his way.

Wrex approached Gormul and started talking to him and holy shit, Gormul was actually looking nervous! Hot damn, I'm seeing something incredibly surreal here! I cant hear their argument from here but I know that basically Wrex wants Fist to come out... so he could kill him. I actually have no idea why the hell Wrex actually demanded something like that. I mean, who in their right mind would actually agree to this demand? I sure as hell won't!

Huh, I'm forgetting something. I look around and see Harkin sitting there, drinking his liquor and pointedly ignoring Wrex and Gormul. Hey, I think this is the moment where...

Before I can complete my line of thoughts, the door slides open and I see the new arrivals. A trio of newcomers entered the club, two women and one man, all armed to their teeth. I immediately recognize Kaidan and Ashley but my eyes froze on the middle woman who lead them inside, carrying herself like nothing could mess with her and live and to make it better, it was probably the truth. My brain could easily connect a name to the face.

Shepard was here.

* * *

><p><strong>Yep, we are officially entering the Mass Effect 1 events! Woohoo! Yeah, it took me 13 chapters to get here, but I am finally here! Yep, fun times are to be had, and yes, I think I kinda quoted Herr Wozzeck with this phrase, but I dont think he will mind. :P<strong>

**So yeah, soon enough we're going to get things started. Next chapter is going to be...interesting. I hope. Anyway, I dont think I have anything more to say other than some small things. So... thank you everyone for reading this story! I'm glad you loved it so far. Feel free to leave a comment, point out a flaw (which I gladly encourage you to do, this way I'll avoid doing the flaw again) or you can just tell me your opinion. Hell, you can tell me my story sucks, though you better give me a valid reason as to why it sucks. So yeah, that's it for now.  
><strong>

**As for ME3...ooh boy, I'm going to have a _very_ ranty AN next chapter. So you better get your Angst Shielding just in case because the amount of rant I'm going to unleash will be enough to incinerate your eyeballs! So yeah, I'm going to search for my pitchfork and torches for now, so I'll come back later with a new chapter. Until then, have fun.**

**Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**Here is another chapter, just like a promised. And yes, it should be interesting. I hope that the way I wrote some of the characters fit the characters themselves. I hate it when some people write certain characters way OOC, and I'd hate it if it would happen to me. So... feel free to notify me if you notice any of the characters acting OOC. If everything will go as it should, you wouldnt need to, but you know, just in case. :P**

**So yeah. Here is another chapter, and I might squeeze in another one if I'm lucky. Thanks for the support, leave a review or a comment, whatever suits you. Thanks again****!**

**Oh, on a side note: the AN at the end of the chapter will be... well, suffice to say it will be a rant. An angry rant. It also might have some spoilers for ME3 and I will hate myself if I spoil the game for you. So if you dont want spoilers, _DO NOT_ read the AN at the end of the chapter!** **I reapeat, if you dont want spoilers, _do not read the AN below!_**

* * *

><p>Damn, I know I already concluded that the game graphics did no justice to the people, most of all the known characters. Kaidan and Ashley looked a lot better than they did in the first, or second game but Shepard? Damn, she looked<em> good<em>! She was a default female Shepard, but damn, as I already said to myself, the game did her no justice. Back when I first saw the Mass Effect 3 trailer I noticed that Shepard looked a lot better in that game, but it didn't come anywhere close to what I'm seeing here now.

Wow, I'm getting distracted here. Well, it's not my fault that Shepard is good looking. She walks over to Harkin and bumps into Wrex...or was it Wrex bumping into her? I'm not sure, it's hard to see from here and I don't really remember what actually happened. Wrex muttered something to her and stomped out of the club while Shepard walked over to Harkin.

Okay, I needed a good way to talk with her...come on Alex, think! Think, think think! Damn you brain, why did you have to leave me in such a crucial moment? I cant come up with anything good so it pretty much leaves me with my most used idea: wing it and hope for the best. Shit, I hated improvising like this. Okay, the first thing I need to do would be...to be helpful. Okay, I think I can drop off an advice or a hint of something.

"Put it on my tab," I say to Jenna and quickly move out before Jenna could remind me that I _didn't_ have a tab. Oh yeah Jenna, I just ran away without paying. Not that it mattered really, with what would happen soon.

I step out of the club and lean on the wall near it, laying my ambush for Shepard. Wait – holy shit! Why there are turian bodies lying around here? Oh yeah, Saren's assassins, I totally forgot about them. Wow, Shepard did a really good job here. Lot's of blood too. I wonder who is going to clean this up. This actually really bad publicity for Chora's Den.

Okay, I need to play it cool. I don't want anything to be suspicious here. I quickly come up with what I would say and what I _need_ to say. I keep thinking up lines until the door slides open and I see the trio walk out, quietly talking among themselves. Okay, here we go. Let's hope for the best. I take a deep, calming breathe and move away from the wall.

"Commander Shepard," I call out and she turns around to look at me.

"What can I do for you?" she asks, looking at me with some suspicion. "and how do you know who I am?"

Kaidan and Ashley keep quite for now, though they're looking at me with a lot more suspicion than Shepard. Okay, keep it cool and respond casually. "Well, you're kinda famous. I'm just wondering why you would come to Chora's Den to talk with _Harkin_ of all people," I say casually, trying to sound like a curious young man.

She looked thoughtful for a few seconds before she replied. "I'm looked for a C-sec officer, Garrus Vakarian. I need his help to find evidence against Saren. He was the one who attacked Eden Prime," she said.

Wow, she's really honest with me. I'm not sure this is stuff that can be discussed like that with complete strangers but here she is, telling me the whole story so far. Okay...let's see where I can go with this. "Wait, you're telling me a_ Specter_ attacked Eden Prime?" I say, managing to sound shocked.

"Exactly. Do you know anything?"

Huh, she actually asks me if I know anything. Damn, Shepard is full of surprises today. Regardless, I think I can actually help with that. I nervously look around, I don't want anyone to know that I talked with her. "It's just rumors, and I'm not really sure if it's true or not. Before I say anything, you didn't hear it from me," I say, looking around again. "Lately, I heard that Fist started working with a certain Specter and the Shadow Broker is not happy about it," I quietly say.

"Is that so?" she says with a raised eyebrow. I could see a barely-visible smirk on her lips. Yay, I made her happy about something!

"Yep, but this is just a rumor, so I can't be sure it's true or not. But...I also know that Fist sent some people to the local clinic not even an hour ago. I don't know why, but it seemed important. Fist is somewhat nervous lately, though I have no idea why."

"How do you know all this?" she asks, suddenly back to being suspicious.

I snort loudly at that. "I work here. I'm a bouncer so I know and hear stuff," I say simply.

"Commander, are you sure we can trust him? He might wanr Fist," Ashley speaks for the first time and it just happens to ruin my mood.

I interrupt them before Shepard could answer. "I _do_ work for Fist.," I say, looking at Ashley with a frown. I admit that Ashley's xenophobic attitude annoyed me several times but I didn't really hate her. But she think I'm going to sell them out and it's just insulting. Then again, she doesn't even know me yet. "And no, I wont say anything to him about you. Call it patriotism, or whatever you want but I want to see Saren pay for attacking Eden Prime. Besides, Fist is an asshole!"

Ashley smirks at that. Hell, even Shepard cracks a small smirk at that. "Thanks for the info," she finally says and they start walking away.

"No problem. Good luck with the investigation!" I call after her. Yeah! This went well! I deserve a freaking Oscar for this. A small part of my mind noticed how surreal it is that we all simply ignored the dead bodies lying around. Damn, I wonder who is going to clean this up! They can't just stay lying around here.

I follow Shepard with my eyes until they finally disappear from view. Okay, part one of my plan worked fine, though I think they are a bit suspicious of me since I admitted that I worked for Fist now. Hopefully it wont come back to bite me in the ass. Now, I needed a way to make myself even more useful and hopefully even show off some of my skills.

Shit, I didn't really want to get into a firefight today but if I want better chances at joining Shepard, I pretty much had to. Going to the clinic now would be a bad idea for several different reasons. First of all, Garrus pretty much thought I was a criminal so popping up in the clinic might give him the idea to shoot me in the head or something like that. Storming Chora's Den was a bad idea too, since I really didn't want to attack some of my coworkers. I didn't know half of them, but most of the ones I do know are not that bad. Some of them work there simply because they need the money. Then again, I honestly don't know where the hell Fist found so many people to defend it, since Chora's Den had around six armed people inside, at best. He probably called them for backup or something.

Oh shit. Johnson and Tilben. They will probably end up called to the club and then Shepard will kill them. Fuck... I couldn't just let them die like that. I have to warn them. I decide that sticking around was a bad idea, especially when Fist will start building up a defense. I'm not going to fight against Shepard, I'm not insane. Besides, these dead turians might draw some attention to me. I quickly leave the area, moving towards the markets as I opened the omni-tool and type in a message. It took me about two minutes to write it but I think it was enough.

_'If you value me as a friend and trust me, no matter what, _don't_ go to Chora's Den today. Even if Fist calls you, don't even think about going because then you will probably end up dead, so please, trust me on this one and do as I say.'_

Yeah, I think it was enough to get the message through. Hopefully it will be enough to keep them alive. I send them both the message and now I can only hope for the best. Okay, now what do I do now? I decide to wait and think this over and and after five minutes my omni-tool pinged and I see a message from Fist, telling us all to come to Chora's Den ASAP. Sorry mate, I'll have to refuse. I think I'll consider this my resignation. I hope Tilben and Johnson listened to me about this.

Well this meant one thing. Shepard already dealt with Fist's thugs in the clinic and is now heading toward the Den. This left me only one way to help out, which involved a certain quarian. I guess I can help her, especially since she actually needed the help. She was heading straight into an ambush after all. Tali could handle them, probably, since she was quite badass but a little help was never a bad thing.

Now that I settled down with the idea I leave the markets and head down to the alleys from the other side. This way I wont meet up with Shepard on the way, if she actually manages to raid the club in minutes, but I wasn't going to risk it. I take turn to the alleys and enter stealth mode, which consisted of me trying to be quiet. I had no idea if I was stealthy to begin with, since I wasn't actually trying to sneak around people to check if they could notice or hear me. Then again, I was a goddamned master in hide-and-seek games, especially when I started bringing psychology into the damn game.

However before I could even get to the alleys I spot two salarians and a turian entering the alley. Oh shit! I quickly move out of sight and wait until they are inside. Oh damn, these guys are already here. I think I should hurry before Tali gets in trouble. I quietly enter the alley, making sure to stick to the walls and out of sight. I slow down when I finally see them and very slowly creep towards the two salarians, who fortunately had their backs to me.

I see Tali, who looks almost the same as in the games, though admittedly, quite a lot better, since she wasn't made from pixels now. She stares at the turian who slowly walked over to her. Hey, this looks somewhat familiar...

"Did you bring it?" the turian asks.

"Where's the Shadow Broke? Where's Fist?" she asks and damn, I love her voice. Especially her accent. I recall that silly forum argument I got into over whether he accent was Russian or not. People told me I kinda have the same accent as hers whenever I talk English... which I've been doing constantly for the past six months.

"They'll be here. Where's the evidence?" the turian asks back, gently running his hand over Tali's arm.

Wait, what the hell? It's already beginning and Shepard is not here yet! Oh shit, I think it's my fault. I delayed her after she came out of the club. Oh god, I think I nearly killed Tali. Damn, if Shepard's not going to come, I guess I'll just have to replace her.

I quietly move out of my cover and silently approach the salarians. I'm in Tali's line of sight but I have no idea if she's looking at me or not, but just in case I place a finger over my lips, making the universal sound of 'shh!' just to be sure, in case she did see me.

Tali slaps his hand away. Ooh, burned. "No way. The deal is off," she says with finality. I bet the turian looks pissed and now he turns around to signal the salarian... and sees me standing behind them.

Oh... crap.

We stare at each other for several seconds, he stares in surprise while I stare with grimace. Well, no sense in trying to hide myself now. I grab the closest salarian's head with my left hand and slam his head into the wall. He was probably surprised by the surprise attack and didn't even react until his head collided with the wall. I then clench my right fist and spin around, gathering momentum for the fist I slam into the second salarian's face.

Holy crap! The punch actually sent him off his feet, sending him flying for about a meter until he landed in a very painful-looking manner. Hell yeah! I just falcon punched the fuck out of him! But _fuck_, I think I broke a finger! Note to self: punching someone wearing a helmet is a _very bad idea_.

I grimace in pain as I use my aching hand to take out my pistol. The salarian that was slammed into the wall was now quickly recovering and getting back on his feet. Unfortunately, he was quickly stopped when I aimed the pistol at his head and pulled the trigger. I turn around to face the other but instead I see a very angry turian, aiming a shotgun at me.

Oh, shit! I jumped behind a crate. Why it was there would probably never be answered but I was still glad it was there. Unfortunately, he still fired the shotgun when I was halfway to the crate. Even though it was just a glancing hit, it still took out my shields. Goddammit! I hate these cheap, shitty shields! I need better ones, ASAP.

I raise my pistol over the crate and blindly fire in the general direction of the turian until my pistol overheats and once it does, I quickly prepare an Overload and jump out of cover, releasing the Overload.

The turian was just a few feet away from me when the Overload hit him. Again, it wasnt enough to bring down all of his shields but it overheated his shotgun. Apparently, this only served to piss him off even further because then he just charged me and shoved me at the wall.

This caught me by surprise and I winced when I hit the wall. I quickly raise my now-cooled pistol to shoot him but he grab my hand and pinned it to the wall, leaving me with only one hand to defend myself.

Goddammit! Why do everyone I fight have to be sturdier and stronger than me? My breath was knocked out of my lungs when he punched me in the gun but I quickly countered by punching him in the ribs. This did little other than getting a gruff grunt out of him but an idea struck me. Since I was effectively pinned against the wall, again, I could use it to my advantage.

I fold my legs up to my chest and kick out with both legs, hitting him in the abdomen. This sent him tumbling away but unfortunately this resulted in me landing painfully on the floor. Ugh, this is a hell to my poor tailbone.

I quickly recover though and bring up my pistol at the turian. Unfortunately, he already recovered and was already had his shotgun aimed at me. I was on the ground and there was no chance for me to move out of the way and my shields were still down. Fuck, this might end badly. I quickly aim at his face and pull the trigger just as I saw him brace for the shotgun's recoil...

And then he is suddenly sent flying to the side in a shower of blood and other bodily fluids as his head suddenly blew up. I blink in confusion, both stunned and disgusted at the scene that would probably haunt me forever. I look to the side and see Tali holstering her own shotgun. Oh, wow. She just blew his fucking head off! And now she stares at me.

I clear my throat and get up from the ground. "You okay?" I ask her as I rub my stomach. That punch will probably leave a bruise.

"I think I should be the one asking that," she deadpanned. I look for the second salarian, since I doubt my punch knocked him out and I spot him leaning against the wall on the other side of the alley, quite a nasty hole in his chest. Looks like Tali got him first.

I chuckle at that but before I could say anything to that I was interrupted. "Drop your weapon!" A very familiar flanging voice shouts from behind me.

I turn around and – holy shit! I see the whole crew standing behind me. I see Garrus, Shepard, Ashley, Kaidan and even Wrex and to make matters worse, they were all aiming their weapons at _me_.

Okay, I'm not going to risk my head being blown off. I quickly drop my weapon and raise my arms, turning to face them. "Hey, I'm not the bad guy here!" I carefully say as I take several steps back.

"He's telling the truth! He helped me against these men," Tali quickly defended me and I swear, I felt warm inside at that moment. Go Tali, prove them that I'm a nice guy! "Fist! He set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him," she adds angrily. Well Tali, what did you expect from a guy who calls himself Fist?

"Were you hurt in the fight?" Shepard asks as she holsters her gun, quickly followed by the others, though I notice that Garrus doesn't look happy about it and is now glaring at me. Oh, come _on_ Garrus, I'm not the criminal here!

"I know how to look after myself, not that I don't appreciate the help," she says the last part while looking at me. Oh god, I stole Shepard's role in this situation. Hah! That's priceless. "But who are you and why are you here?"

Shepard sheepishly rubs the back of her neck. "We're actually here to find you. My name's Shepard, I'm with the Alliance. I'm looking for evidence to prove that Saren is a traitor," Shepard quickly explains herself.

"then you are in luck, because I have just what you are looking for," she says. "But not here," she continues firmly. "We need to go somewhere safe."

"We can take her to the embassy, it's safe there," Kaidan pipes in from behind Shepard. "Udina would want to see this too."

"Yeah, he will," Shepard says with some distaste. Oh, good to know I'm not the only one with a dislike towards Udina.

"Alright, lead the way," Tali agrees.

"Wait Shepard, what about him?" Garrus interrupts, looking at me, thus making everyone's attention turn to me. "He's working for Fist."

At the sound of that Tali suddenly tensed and looked at me with surprise, taking a step away from me. Oh, damn you Garrus! "Oh _come on_, Garrus! I didn't blow up that fucking building!" I say in exasperation. "And I worked for Fist. You can say that I quit today since he called everyone to the Den for some reason and instead I came here. I doubt he'd hire me again after this," I explain.

Wrex chuckled at that, a sound that sent chills down my spine. "He wont. Fist's dead," he said in very pleased way.

"Oh," I say in length. Wow, it was kinda hard to care about his death. It seems awful and disturbing, but I actually don't really care about him being dead. In the six months I worked there I saw him only like three times and even then he seemed to be a jerkass. "That settles it then. I no longer work for Fist."

"Garrus, you know him?" Shepard asks.

"Alex **********, _worked_ for Fist and is suspected in killing fourteen turians and blowing up the building where they were found," Garrus quickly lists off. "though there is no evidence to prove his involvement, yet," he adds menacingly.

_Wow_. This description actually made me sound dangerous and... awesome. It's strange that I'm the only suspect, considering Jorrun killed most, if not all mercs inside that building. Still, this both saddens me and pisses me off. Garrus is one of my favorite characters in the game and here he is, hating my guts.

"How did you even know about this?" Shepard asks me suspiciously. "You haven't said anything when we talked."

"Ah. When you left I heard about how Fist set up a quarian that had some very important and big information, which would probably interest you," I quickly lie through my teeth. "I had no idea how to contact you so instead I decided to find her myself, and I think I managed to do it just in time," I say, gesturing at the bodies around us.

"I see," she says in length. I'm not sure if she believes me or not. I certainly hope it's the former.

"I risked my ass to save her so I think I have the right to see this to the end. I'm coming with you, if you'd let me," I say firmly with as much finality as I could. Shepard stares at me for several seconds before she nods and I give her my biggest smile.

Garrus doesn't look happy about it though. Well, I don't give a damn at the moment! He'll have time to warm up to me I guess. We head off towards the embassies and I cant help but feel incredibly awesome about the fact that I'm walking with quite-possibly the most dangerous group on the Citadel, if not the galaxy.

All of a sudden Wrex is in my face. I lean my head back in surprise at how suddenly he moved from the other side to walk beside me. "Did you kill those turians?" he asks, or demanded. I can't be sure with the way he asked.

Ooh, Wrex is actually interested in me! Hell yeah! Well, I guess I can play with it for a bit. "Yeah, I killed all of them, including six other, who I chopped to pieces," I say, loud enough for everyone to hear. "but don't tell Garrus about it!" I hastily add, again loud enough for Garrus to hear.

Apparently Wrex quickly catches on to what I'm doing and chuckles at my words. I send a glance at Garrus, who is pointedly ignoring me, though I can see his mandibles twitch a couple of times.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, the chapter's over! And now it's time for my epic rant about Bioware! So as I said up above, if you dont want spoilers, get out<em> now!<em>**

**I'll start on a mild and small issue. As you probably know, ME3 has multiple endings! If you think that it's 'Yay, I like multiple endings' think again, because most of the players are screwed. You heard about that iOS Mass Effect game? Yeah, YOU CANT GET THE PERFECT ENDING WITHOUT IT! Yeah, unless you buy that Iphone game, you cant get the 100% ending! Sweet, isnt it? So if you want to have the best ending possible, you have to spend even MORE money than you already spend, and they're charging extra for the DLC they release _with the game! _**

**To make matters worse? ALL THE ENDING SUCK! No really, they suck gargantuan balls! Those of you who already completed the game, most likely all of you who happen to live in the US, since you got the game earlier, you probably already know how shitty the endings are. I honestly feel like I was kicked in the balls by Bioware and then they continued kicking me more and then they spit on me as well to add insult to injury!  
><strong>

**You just... CANT finish a game like that! It's probably the worst ending in GAMING HISTORY! And Bioware LOVES making those. Those of you who are familiar with Bioware games, more specifically Neverwinter Nights 2, knows what kind of shitty endings they can make. NWN2 ended with the 'Rocks fall, everyone DIES' ending, which is so cliche, annoying and awful that I nearly threw the CD out of the window when I completed it. Luckily, Bioware released an addon for NWN2 which continues the story and shows that no, not EVERYONE dies, but some did and the player character survived. But you know what's best? Bioware already clarified that they are NOT going to release a DLC for ME3 that changes the ending, or continues it! We are stuck with the camel diarrhea they gave us!  
><strong>

**I feel like they just screwed me over! To me, Mass Effect is like the new Star Wars trilogy. It has great, lovable characters, amazing story** **and fantastic gameplay. To me, Mass Effect might've been the best game of all time. I love Mass Effect! BUT... Bioware screwed me over, basically saying 'FUCK YOU!' and shoving a middle finger down my throat. You just... you just CANT end a game like that! It's downright insulting! It's like they spit into the fan's faces! You play through the three games, learning about the different characters, getting used to them, starting to know and love them and then... Bioware goes "HAHA! FUCK YOU!" and kicks you in the nuts. And note that I'm talking about the _best end possible!_  
><strong>

**Yeah, some of you might say that the ending was okay and stuff like that... but I dont care. I feel cheated and as if someone close to me just died. So yeah, fuck you Bioware, FUCK. YOU.**

**Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**Yes! I actually managed to write another chapter in time! Yeah baby, yeah! So yeah, now that my rants are over, no more spoilers will come, so you can calm down and read the AN below. Now, without any more useless delays, here is the newest chapter, and the conclusion to the situation on the Citadel.**

* * *

><p>We arrive to the embassies in record time, especially since we took the minimal amount of elevators to get there. Apparently, I'm not the only one who noticed how slow they are. It's quite surreal in my opinion. Here I am in the most advances space station in the galaxy... and the elevators are so slow that many people prefer taking hour-long detours to avoid them.<p>

"You're not making my life easy Shepard," Udina says as we finally enter his office. I see him standing at the balcony, looking over at the Presidium. "Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? Do you have any idea how many..." he pauses when he turns around and sees us. "what is this Shepard? A quarian? A turian, a krogan and some thug? What are you playing with?"

I resist the urge to snicker. It's not my fault it sounded like the start of a lame bar joke... wait. Thug? I look like a thug? Now wait a minute...

Shepard rolled her eyes at the ambassador. "I'm making your day, ambassador," she says coolly. Yep, she definitely doesnt like Udina. "you asked me for evidence and here it is. This quarian has information linking Saren to the geth."

"Really?" Udina asks, now with some interest, though he still looks annoyed. "maybe you'd better start at the beginning, Miss..."

"My name is Tali," she says, sounding both annoyed and offended. Can't blame her here, I would be annoyed too if everyone called me 'human' all the time. "Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya."

"We don't see many quarians here," he says, sounding a bit uncomfortable with her being in his office. "why did you leave the flotilla?"

"I was on my Pilgrimage. My right of passage into adulthood," Tali quickly explains.

"Pilgrimage?" Shepard interrupts the explanation. "Sorry, I've never heard of it before."

And here we go we the explanations to things I already know. Damn, its going to be a torture to go through this every time someone explains something. Playing dumb is awful like this. I quietly make my way over to Garrus, who was quietly listening. "Do I really look like a thug?" I whisper to him. Garrus enthusiastically nods in response, making me pout at him. Wow, this sucks.

"...Since they drove my people into exile, the geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious. I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become seperated from it's unit. Then I disabled it and removed it's memory core."

I take note that now nearly everyone, Udina being the only exception, were looking quite impressed. Hell, I was impressed by it myself, and I knew what she did before everyone else. It was one thing to hear about it in a game, but now that she was in front of me in person, it was damn impressive.

"I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism," Anderson speaks all of a sudden, nearly making me jump. Holy crap! Where did you come from? I think I saw him when we entered but he just kinda disappeared until now.

"So how did you manage to preserve the memory core?" Shepard asks, seemingly captured by the story. I think she even sent Anderson a dirty look for interrupting the story!

"Please, my people created the geth. If you're quick, careful and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Anyway, most of the core was wiped clean, but I managed to salvage some things from its audio banks..." she stopped there, opened her omni-tool and pressed some buttons. Ooh, now we're going to hear Saren admitting he attacked Eden Prime! What the hell is up with that anyway? Why was he even talking with the geth anyway? Okay, he could have been talking with Benezia in front of random geth or maybe he just wanted to...gloat? I always pegged him as the gloating type, dunno.

"Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit," the quality might not been the best, but it was definitely Saren.

"That's Saren's voice!" Anderson states the obvious. "this proves he was involved in the attack!" he says with some amount of triumph. Hell yeah, this is enough to convict him, of course Anderson will be happy, considering their history.

"He said Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the _Conduit_... any idea what that means?" Shepard asked, looking around the room, hoping to get an answer.

Oh, sure I know that it means! Too bad I can't tell you without sounding crazy! And if I did tell her, it will probably lead to some uncomfortable questions. Regardless, Anderson is quick to give his opinion.

"The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's some kind of prothean technology..." he says and then narrows his eyes. "like a weapon."

"Wait, there's more," Tali interrupts them. "Saren wasn't working alone," she presses the play button again and it repeats Saren's message, only this time she doesn't stop it.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers," Benezia says, well, I'm the only one here that knows she is Benezia anyway. Damn, it must suck to be her now. Even though she's indoctrinated, a small part of her is still aware of what she's doing. It must be hell for her.

"I don't recognize that other voice, the one talking about Reapers," Udina remarks.

"Are they some kind of new alien species?" Shepard muses, again, hoping someone will know something about it. Once again, I can answer that, but I won't.

"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed fifty thousand years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished," Tali explains, sounding quite affronted by the idea of the Reapers. "At least... that's what the geth believe."

Well, technically it's true and both untrue, since the Reapers did annihilate the Protheans... sort of. The Collectors were just the leftovers of the race they once were. I have to admit that it's quite a tragic end for them. The Reapers didn't just annihilate them to extinction, they technically wiped them out and use them for their own goals now.

"Sounds a little farfetched," Udina remarks doubtfully. Heh, I knew he will say it. Udina's an outright bastard most of the time.

"The vision on Eden Prime... I understand it now!" Shepard says in realization. Oh, wait, I'm supposed to look confused and curious now since I'm not supposed to know about it. I quickly give Shepard what I hope was a confused look. "I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers!"

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back," Tali summarized.

"The Council is just going to _love_ this," Udina mutters, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space. We have to tell them!" Shepard says heatedly, looking at Udina angrily.

Udina looked to be ready to say something back but Anderson was quick to interrupt them before it could escalate into a fight. "No matter what they about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor!" his words effectively calmed them down. Aww, come on Anderson, you had to stop them? Shepard was about to kick Udina's ass!

"Anderson is right," Udina quickly collects himself. "We need to present this to the Council right away."

"What about her? The quarian," Wrex quickly points out.

Tali quickly turns to Wrex and _glares_ at him. "My _name_ is Tali!" she says irritatedly still glaring at the much bigger battlemaster. Whoa, that takes some guts. Wow, she must really hate it when people refer to her as 'quarian' instead of calling her by name. Tali then turns to Shepard. "You saw me in the alley, Commander, you know what I can do. Let me come with you."

"I thought you were on your pilgrimage," Shepard points out.

"The Pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this?" she says heatedly. Man, I always loved that phrase, don't know why. "Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My Pilgrimage can wait."

Shepard considers it for a few seconds, eying Tali all the while until she nods. "I'll take all the help I can get," she finally agreed.

Tali visibly relaxed. "Thanks. You wont regret this," she says, sounding quite relieved. Even though I cant see her face, I'm sure she's probably smiling right now.

"Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council," Udina says and gives Anderson a short glance. "Take a few minutes to collect yourself and meet us at the tower," he finishes and beckons Anderson to follow him but before they left the room he stopped and gave Shepard a small glare. "And please, do not bring every single person you meet on the way with you."

"What an ass," I mutter when they finally leave.

"You can say that again," Shepard agrees and I see her glaring at the now closed office door. "Well, we should be going. I don't want to keep that prick waiting," she bitterly says and then looks at me. "Thanks for the help," she says, offering me a small smile.

Holy crap, this is the big moment. This is the moment I've been waiting for all this time, all these six months. I either join Shepard... or go home. But... how can I go home after this? It probably sounds incredibly selfish but back home I have nothing waiting for me. Nothing interesting at least. If I go home, I'm back to my mundane existence, mechanically doing the same thing every day without any big purpose. I've always dreamed about doing something important, like saving the galaxy in this particular case and here I was, one step away from such an opportunity.

But this is bigger than me. This isn't just about me and my somewhat selfish desires. I know what's going on here and I know that the whole galaxy as in stake! Lucy and Jorrun, Johnson and Tilben, not only them, but the whole galaxy is in danger and I have the opportunity to do something about it. As Tali said, what does it say about me if I turn my back on this?

"Commander, wait!" I call after the woman, who turns around and looks at me curiously. "I want to join you."

To my surprise Garrus was the first one to talk. "Commander, are you sure you want him with us? He worked for Fist and I believe he's guilty of several crimes!" he says heatedly, sending a glare at me. Wow, Garrus, you're such an ass! You're one of my favorite characters of all time and you hate me. You have no idea how much emotional pain you're putting me through.

"Garrus has a point. Are you sure about this?" Kaidan points out. Wait, Kaidan? You too?

Okay, I believe this is enough. "Oh _yes_. And Wrex is _such _a law abiding citizen," I drawl, rolling my eyes as I talk. "I bet he saves kittens stuck on trees and helps old ladies cross the road in his free time!" I finish excitedly. Wrex even snorts at that, and I hope it's from laughter.

Still, I'm making a fine point here. I might be a criminal, _allegedly_, but Wrex? He gunned down Fist right in front of them! And Shepard still takes him along. One thing is for sure, Shepard doesn't give a fuck whether Wrex did questionable things or not. I just have to convince Shepard and if she takes me with her, I'll have more than enough time to make the others like me.

"Look, Shepard. I might have done some things I'm not proud of, yeah, but this is bigger than me. Saren has to be stopped, you know it yourself. I want to help you stop him and you said that you'll take all the help you can get. Well, here I am. You don't even have to pay me or anything. One thing I know for sure. If I don't do this, I probably lost the only opportunity to do something good with my life."

And realize that everyone is staring at me. Oh, damn. This is... this is quite awkward. Why is no one speaking? Why are they all staring at me like that? I look back at Shepard, who then, much to my surprise, smiles at me. "Welcome aboard," she says.

She... she accepted! Holy shit, she actually accepted! Oh yeah, I'm on Shepard's team! I would probably do a small victory dance if I was alone at the moment but I don't want to embarrass myself in front of the whole crew, so I don't do anything other than give her a big grin. I offer her my hand and she shakes it firmly. "You wont regret this," I say with a grin as I retract my hand. Damn, she has a strong grip...

"I hope we wont," Garrus mutters loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Shepard asks, looking at Garrus and than at me.

"If there's one thing I don't do, it's stabbing people in the back. You won't have any problems from me," I assure her and send a dirty look at Garrus.

Garrus stays silent for several seconds until he sighs. "No Commander, it's not going to be a problem."

"Good. Now let's go, we have a meeting with the Council," Shepard says and starts walking away.

"Uh, just a second. I need to pack my things so... where do I need to go after that?" I ask. Well, I know where the Normandy is, but she's not supposed to know that.

She pauses for a second and then opens her omni-tool. "I'm giving you the coordinates of our ship, the Normandy. You can reach it through C-sec," she adds.

I nod, starting to grin like an idiot again. "Good. I'll see you there, I guess."

We part ways after that and I nearly run all the way to the hotel. Since running would just get me unwanted attention, I just walked very quickly. I cant believe this. I'm on Shepard's crew! By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss, I cant believe I'm actually doing this!

Still, I'm feeling a bit bad about abandoning my family like this. I never even managed to say goodbye. But this is more important. The whole galaxy is in danger! I believe my family would survive without me. They can take care of themselves.

I finally reach the hotel and make a quick stop to the receptionist to explain the situation. Well, I didn't really explain anything. I just asked her to sign me out. There's no point in paying them now that I'm leaving.

I enter my room and quickly walk over to the closet and dump it's contents at the bed. Now I need a bag or something. I look around for a bag but I am quickly interrupted and nearly have a heart attack.

"Now this was exciting!" A voice exclaimed from right behind me, causing me to jump in place and reach for my pistol. I turn around and see the Chairman, looking exactly as I remember him.

"Goddammit! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I yell as I step back. The Chairman chuckled at my reaction, the sick bastard. "How the hell did you get in here anyway?"

"Magic," he says with a roll of his eyes. "Nice little speech you had there with Shepard," he adds with a smirk.

"Wait, how do you know about it?" I ask him suspiciously.

"Oh, please. I know everything and I _always_ watch. You can't escape from me," he says with a wide grin.

Okay, this is a bit disturbing. "_Always?_" I slowly repeat. "Have you heard of the concept called 'privacy'?"

He makes a disgusted expression. "Ew, you think I'm watching you when you shower or something? I have way better things to do," he says in disgust, he even shudders once. "Besides, it's not like there's anything to see there anyway," he adds with a small smirk.

Okay, this guy is just asking to be punched. I calm myself down before I do anything rash. I have better and more important things to do, like packing. I finally find that duffel bag I bought months ago and start packing my clothes and things into it. Thankfully, I never bought that many things and it would all fit into one bag.

"So, back to topic. I see you made your choice," he says, sounding a bit more serious.

I pause in my packing. Yeah, I did. I'm staying here and I'm going against the Reapers. This makes me nervous as hell, but I know that everything should go fine, as long as I don't do something stupid. "Yeah, I did," I say quietly.

"Good!" he says cheerily. "Because this was a one-way trip!"

It takes me several seconds to register what he said. "What?" I say when I finally did. One-way trip? This meant... that I never could go back even if I wanted to! "You lied!" I yell at him and find myself clenching my fists in anger.

"Yep, I did!" he says cheerfully, still wearing that stupid, infuriating grin of his. God, I want to wipe it out so much right now.

"Why? Why did you lie! You... son of a bitch! Why the fuck did you lie!"

"Why?" he asks, looking to be genuinely confused. "I'll tell you why. If I told you that you cant go back right at the start, you would've only whined and whined about me kidnapping you and the only thing left for you to do was join Shepard," he explained as if it was obvious.

"What difference does it make!" I shout, walking over to him and stopping right in front of him. One movement, this all it will take to drive my fist into his obnoxious grin. "Joining Shepard is still the only thing I can do!"

"It makes a damn big difference," he calmly says, no longer grinning. He doesn't look worried that I'm glaring daggers at him at the moment, or that I look like I'm about to punch him. "because you chose to join her now, didn't you?" he slowly says, as if he's talking to a child. "You're not whining about being kidnapped, you're not whining about not being able to see your family again. You willingly decided to stay here and help Shepard. It was your choice," he listed off his fingers. "Even if I lied to you, it still was your choice to stay here and join Shepard."

God, as much as I want to punch him right now, he's making a damn good point. Damn bastard. "So why do you tell me this now? You could just keep me in the dark," I say with a frown, walking away from him back to my half-filled bag.

"Because you deserve to know about it, at the least," he says with a shrug. "Again, back to topic. I believe I don't need to tell you how you shouldn't screw up the canon. Don't do anything stupid, and everything will be fine," he repeated the instructions while I rolled my eyes. I knew everything about it already so there was no point in repeating it. "Oh, and here," he added. I see him reach into the folds of his longcoat and take out a small box, which he tossed to me.

I catch it and inspect it. "A new omni-tool?" I say with a raised eyebrow. "You bought me a new omni-tool?" Wow, this is quite surprising. I still hate him though.

The Chairman bit his lower lip and looked away for a few seconds. "Yeah... let's go with that," he finally said. "though if some Alliance officer comes to you asking about missing omni-tools, _deny everything!_" he added quickly.

Oh, god. He gave me a stolen omni-tool. This is just great. I really hope he's just joking about this. "Gee, thanks," I deadpan.

"You're welcome!" he says chipperly and turns away to the door, though before he left he paused and turned back to me. "Oh, before I forget. Good luck!" he said with a wink and disappeared when the door closed after him.

I stare at the door for several seconds before I finally go back to packing. Wow, the guys is probably the biggest ass in existence. It's really sad that he's actually right. I'm not that sad or angry about being kidnapped, since I did choose to join Shepard. Oh, I'm still angry, but not enough to blow up on the blond bastard.

I pause when I see my half-full cigarette pack and lighter. I cant help but chuckle when I see them. Even though I haven't touched them for nearly half a year now, I'm not going to throw those away. It's one of the only things I have left from home. I guess I can call it my lucky charm or something. I put the pack into the back and pocket the lighter. Yep, this will be my lucky charm.

I manage to finish packing in several minutes and quickly leave the room, not forgetting to notify the receptionist that I'm leaving now. I'm not really in a hurry, since Shepard is probably still at the tower, becoming a Specter for all I know. This also gives me some time to think.

Yeah, I'm going to save the galaxy... or just try. I have no idea if I'm actually in their league. I can count all the firefights I've been though on one hand while the rest of the crew are trained soldiers. Wrex was centuries old so he probably saw more action than the whole crew put together. I hope I'm up for the task. It would really suck if I get killed on my first mission.

Before I know it, I'm already standing in front of the elevator in the C-sec academy. The elevator arrives surprisingly quickly but as I expected, it took eons to climb up, much to my dismay. These elevators _are_ slower than continental drift!

I exit the elevator and take a good look at what I'm seeing. Again, the game did no justice many things. The Normandy is one of them. It looks simply... majestically beautiful. The slick build, the way it reflected the light... it was simply breathtaking. I've watched the Destiny Ascension many times in the past six months and when I compare it to the Normandy... it's damn ugly.

I can't help it, I just grin like an idiot. I don't see Anderson and Udina anywhere in sight, so it means that I'm either late, or early. It doesnt matter anyway. I'm standing right in front of the damn Normandy! It's like... a legendary ship or something. Damn, I'm geeking out here. I quickly try to look somewhat professional and I step on the bridge leading to the airlock.

Hah, this seems so poetic now! Still grinning like an idiot, I cross the bridge to a new episode in my life. Poetic indeed.

* * *

><p><strong>Hah! We're on the Normandy now! Yep, hopefully I portrayed everyone right. I'm still nervous about that. So, yeah. Next chapter will have some interactions with the rest of the team and other, equally fun things and then the journey begins! How exciting it is, right? Yeah, I'm excited as hell. THe events of ME1 are finally on!<strong>

**I'm also nervous, scared, worried and nervous as hell. My first exam is _tomorrow_ and I have no idea if I'm ready or not. By the nine hells, I'm freaking scared shitless right now.** **I'm not sure I'll have time for another chapter this week, since I'm busy until friday but still, I guess I'll have a new chapter ready by the weekend.**

**Thanks for all the support! I love you people. Feel free to leave any comment of you might have, constructive criticism is very favorable, though**** you can just tell me your opinion and all that. So yeah, thanks again! So until next time! For now, I'm running to get ready for my exam, get some last minute preparations while I still can.** **Wish me luck!**

**Delvaro out.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Ooooh, yeaaaah! I'm back, and sooner than I expected. I have some very, very good news! I passed the exams with flying colors! Woohoo! An A and a B is quite nice I think. I'm surprised myself! Anyway, I'm officially free now and I believe that I can pretty much write daily now, save for a few days where I'll be busy doing my huge essay work but thats in the future and not now.**

**Right now I have this brand new chapter that I managed to write some yesterday and finished today. It's longer than usual but I actually liked it. I'm still rather nervous that I got some some of the characters wrong. It's like an irrational fear for me so please, if you dont mind that is, tell me if I did anything wrong with their portrayal. Did I get them right or do they seem OOC?  
><strong>

**Now, without further ado, here is the newest chapter.**

* * *

><p>As soon as I step into the Normandy, not before I spend nearly five though the incredibly slow decontamination process, I'm greeted by a very familiar balding man. It takes me about three seconds to recognize him but I'm more excited about the fact that someone is here to meet me!<p>

"I'm Navigator Pressly," he greets, offering a hand, which I gladly shake. "The Commander told me you will be coming. Welcome to the Normandy," he says in a very official manner which only makes me more giddy. Damn, I'm on the Normandy!

"I'm not late or anything, am I?" I ask worriedly. It would be a very bad impression if I'd be late before the mission even started!

"No. The rest of the... aliens are already on board," he says and I notice how he stresses the word 'aliens'. Ah, I remember now. He has an issue about the alien teammates at first, something about his father, or grandfather fighting in the first contact war. I don't really remember. "The Commander is buying supplies but she should be here soon," he continues. "I'll show you where you will stay."

What followed was a brief tour of the ship. It's a bit sad to admit that I barely even listen to Pressly as we go through the first floor. I'm more occupied with moving my head left and right every other second. If I didn't know my head was strongly attached to the neck, I'd be worrying about it snapping off by now from all the movement it did.

I find that it's incredibly different being on this ship than just watching it through a screen. All the crewmen are doing... whatever it is they're doing, though it looks to be very important. It just looks more... alive than in the game. The people here are not just random NPC that sit in front of the console doing the same thing over and over through the whole game. I see many crewmen walking around, doing stuff, a lot of them were talking with each other, one laughed at some joke.

This was also my first time on a space ship and I have to admit that I'm extremely excited about it. Technically, I was already in space, with the Citadel being a space station and all that but the Normandy has a totally different feel to it. It pretty much shoves the fact that I'm in space right into my face. Well, we're still on the Citadel but I'll ignore that part.

Eventually we reach the lower level where Pressly shows me the mess hall, or whatever it is called, since it doesn't really look like a mess hall. A pair of guy were eating, animatedly chatting while the other were doing their thing. Pressly pointed out all the important things, like the med-bay and where we can get the food and soon enough we reached the elevator.

"We arranged an area for you and the other new... additions to the crew," Pressly explains and a minute later the doors open and we step into the garage. I blink in surprise when I finally see it. I have to admit that it looks quite... bigger. A lot bigger. I looks like it has enough room for two extra Makos, though there was only one Mako here so far. "Feel free to use one of the lockers there," Pressly interrupts my thoughts when he points out the lockers for the ground team. "I'll leave you to yourself now," he says and walks back into the elevator.

"Thanks for the tour. It was nice meeting you!" I say to him. He gives me a small smile before the door closes and he goes back to the upper level.

I turn back to the garage and inspect the area. Everyone else, save for Ashley are already here, much to my pleasure. Garrus is standing in front of the Mako, looking at it thoughtfully. Oh, by the nine hells, is this where his calibration obsession began? Oh boy, I hope I can stop him from falling in love with calibrations of all kind.

Wrex is... huh, I guess he's loitering around the lockers, looking at nothing in particular. I always wondered about why he never actually did anything between missions. Tali was in the engineering, Garrus did calibrations to the Mako, Ashley did something with the weapons, probably maintenance and Kaidan did... actually, I have no idea what he was doing most of the game. Wrex just...stood there, leaning on the wall. Well, I guess it's one mystery I'll have time to solve.

Tali is nowhere in sight, so I guess she's already checking out the drive core. I think I'll give her a visit once I settle down.

I make my way to the lockers but before I even manage to get halfway there I see Garrus, who noticed I was here by now, walking over to me. I stop in place and wait for him. For some odd reason, he really seems uncomfortable now and now he just stands in front of me. "Uh, yeah?" I say awkwardly after several seconds of silence.

"Look, since we're going to be working together now, I think we should have a fresh start," he says uncomfortably, offering me his hand. Okay, this is... surprising. I definitely wasn't expecting it. And for some reason he seems somewhat uncomfortable.

An idea suddenly strikes me. "Did Shepard ask you to do this?" I curiously ask, hoping that I was right. If I wasn't, I will probably look like an idiot now. To my relief and surprise he lets out a sigh and nods.

"Yeah, but she has a point. This mission is important and if we keep this animosity between us it might cause problems in the future," he says gravely.

I hold up my hands in defense. "Hey, you're the one who has a problem with me," I quickly point out.

"Maybe, but you lied to me," he shoots back, folding his arms. "I know you were involved in that case."

Okay, you know what? Fuck this. If this is bothering him so much I might as well make it easier for him. "You know what? You're right. I was involved. Happy?" I ask him. Goddamn, this is so annoying! "Are you going to arrest me now?"

Garrus looks slightly surprised that I just went out and admitted it. "No. I resigned from C-sec," he finally says.

"Good. My best friend's wife was kidnapped. There was no time to call C-sec, so we had to take care of it by ourselves. We got through his mercs and once it was obvious he lost, surprise surprise, the jackass rigged the whole place to explode," I explain the situation to him angrily. "For the record, they were Blue Suns mercenaries and I killed maybe three or four of them."

Garrus hadn't said anything to me yet so I continued. "You and I both know how C-sec works. They would've just surrounded the place and wasted time doing nothing, which would've done jack shit. Their goal was to kill my friend and his wife and C-sec would've just got in the way. Beside some property damage, no innocents were hurt or anything, and you cant hold the fact that I helped a friend against me."

I let out a heavy sigh now that everything was out. Yeah, I played the 'renegade cop appeal' card, hopefully he will buy it. Garrus always hated the red tape and all the pointless procedures that stopped him doing his job. If he wont buy it, then screw him. I'll just have to show him that I'm not a bad guy with my actions.

Garrus stares at me for nearly a minute until he eventually sighs. "I see," he slowly says. "Thanks for telling me," and with that he goes back to the Mako, leaving me to stand alone and stare after him.

Okay, what just happened? I have no idea whether he still distrusts me or not. Weird. I guess I'll check it out later. I'm really tired from holding my bad so far. I think I'll go and talk to him after I unpack. As I move to the lockers I pass by Wrex, who is now staring at me.

"Wrex," I greet him. Damn, it feels so awesome to greet him like that, makes me giddy inside.

"If you're thinking about hugging me, I'm going to break your arms," comes the unexpected and casual reply.

This causes me to stop and stare at him. Actually, I think I'm gaping at him with an outright terrified expression. How did he... who told him about that-which-will-not-be-mentioned? And it finally hits me. Very slowly I turn my head to Garrus and I see him trying to look inconspicuous, and failing, while looking at us. What caught my attention was the evil-looking smile he had. It wasn't actually evil-looking, but from my experience with turians, it was surely devious. Oh, Garrus, this means _war_.

"Uh, what?" I asked in a very confused manner.

"The turian warned me about you."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," I assure the krogan. Wrex snorts at that and I decide to change the subject. I'm talking with Wrex already, I might as well go ahead and finish my first conversation with a galactic badass!

"So, Fist is dead? If you don't mind me asking, how did he die?" I carefully ask.

"I shot him," come the simple reply, told in a way that didn't leave much room for a reply. Wow, Wrex is really a master of conversation. I mean, what do I say to that?

"Ah, I... see," I finally say, mentally beating myself up for saying pretty much nothing. "So..." I say in length, quickly trying to find something interesting to say. "What do you think of all this?"

"What do you want?" Wrex finally snaps. Actually he just turned his head to face me but considering he barely even looked at me since I started talking with him...

"What do you mean?" I say with a raised eyebrow, honestly confused.

"You're annoying me. Why?" he asks, staring at me with those red eyes of his. Damn, the way he stares at me actually makes me nervous. A lot.

"I'm trying to start a conversation," I explain. "I hope you know what that is, right?"

"I have nothing to talk about with you," he says curtly and turns his head away from me, back to... whatever he was staring at before.

I frown. Okay, and here I thought I was actually getting along with Wrex. Damn, I hope that at least _someone_ actually likes me here. "And why is that?"

"You're weak, soft and small, even by the standards of your species," he states simply, glancing at me for a second before he tore his eyes away from me.

Weak? Now that's just rude. He haven't seen me in action yet and he already makes an assumption of my skills. "Just because I'm not physically imposing doesn't mean I'm weak," I state. "I think I handled myself well back in the alley," I point out.

"I don't know how you started it, but I saw how it ended," he says matter-of-factly. "You needed to be rescued by a quarian of all things," he even rolled his eyes when he said it.

Ouch, that was a low blow. So I screwed up one time, doesn't mean I screw up all the time. Besides, Tali is pretty badass so there's no shame in getting help from her. "It was a miscalculation on my part," I shrug it off. "If I had a better weapon he'd be dead sooner," and getting into close combat was kinda stupid as well. Damn, I'm just making excuses here.

"But you didn't and you nearly died," he says in the same matter-of-fact tone. "You're weak," he says with finality, dismissing me.

Damn it Wrex, why do you have to be so hard to deal with? "Then I guess I'll just have to prove you're wrong," I state with a small smirk. "Then we'll have something to talk about, I guess," I add.

"Maybe," he says with a barely visible shrug. "unless you get yourself killed the next time we fight, which is likely."

"Likely we will get into a fight or likely I'll get killed?" I ask curiously.

"Both."

Wow Wrex, your confidence in me is simply staggering. I think I'll hold of talking with him until the next mission. I think that will prove that I'm not some weak punk. I really hope he's not right. It will kinda suck if I end up killed on my very first mission. Damn, screw it, I think I'm going to talk with a more friendly person and the most friendly person on this floor happens to be Tali.

I quickly pick an empty locker and drop my bag on the floor in front of it. Packing can wait for now. "I guess I'll see you later," I say to Wrex and walk to the corridor leading to the drive core.

"Unfortunately," Wrex mutters loudly, making me wince. Okay, I'm going to find Tali.

I cant help but grin like an idiot when I enter the room where the drive core is. It looks so... majestic. I might even say it looks magical in a way. The way it's pulsing makes me think of a heart, which is somewhat true, with it being the heart of the Normandy. I've never seen anything quite like it.

I finally tear my eyes off from the drive core and look over to where Tali should be and quickly spot her. Still sending glances at the core I walk over to stop right beside her. Unfortunately, this had the uncomfortable side effect of making her jump in surprise. "Oh, Alex! I didn't see you there," she breathed.

"Sorry, I should've said something," I quickly apologize. Great going Alex, you just scared someone without any reason.

Thankfully, she shrugged it off. "Don't worry, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings."

"Preoccupied with the ship?" I ask with a smile.

She gave me an excited nod. "The ship is amazing! It's one of the most advanced ships I have ever seen," she practically gushed.

I stare at the drive core against and cant help but agree. "Uhhuh," I slowly say. Wow, the way the drive core shines and flashes is kinda mesmerizing... "so you like ships?" I ask, breaking the silence. I of course knew the answer but I had to play dumb for now.

"I'm a quarian. It's not a matter of liking or disliking. Nearly every quarian knows how to take care of a ship."

"Ah, yeah. I've read about the quarians. You live on the Migrant Fleet and I heard that most of the ships are... well, not very new," I say the last part somewhat uncomfortably. Hey, it's kinda rude to say that your home was basically an old piece of crap.

"Sadly, you are right. Most of our ships were bought second-hand, or are over a century old. I'm surprised you read about my people. Most prefer to just ignore our existence," she says gloomily. "if you don't mind me asking..."

"Why I read up on the quarians in the first place?" I finish for her and she nods. Well, I guess it's time to tell something of my fake history, though I already mentally changed some minor details. "Well, I grew up on Earth and I didn't really meet any aliens there. Sure, I saw some here and there but I never even talked with one," I start, leaning on the railing to make myself comfortable. "the galaxy is big and there are so many things out there. Let's just say that the different species are what caught my attention. All the different cultures, arts and talents... it's part of the reason why I came to the Citadel in the first place."

"You came to the Citadel because you were interested in the different races?" she asked, sounding somewhat surprised.

"Partly. I wanted to find a good job too, though you know how it turned out in the end. I didn't really want to work for Fist but I didn't have that many options. I don't have any talents in any particular field," I say with a shrug. Well, I had talent with the English language, but since it's the main language of humanity now, my 'talent' is now quite mundane. "At least on the Citadel I had the chance to meet the different races," I finish with a smile.

"What made you so interested in them?" she curiously asks, tearing herself away from the console, which amused me somewhat. Yay, I was more interesting than work!

"I dunno. I grew up on Earth and I got used to our cultures and all the things that are there but the galaxy is huge and there are new things all over the place. After living with humans my whole life, I guess I just want to meet and learn about all the aliens around," I say with another shrug. That, and back home we didn't _have_ any aliens outside of fiction. Now that I actually have the opportunity to interact with other sentient beings, I was going to use it to the most.

"What's it like? Living on Earth?" she suddenly asks me.

Okay, now this is an uncomfortable question. Not only I was form a different Earth, I was also from an Earth 170 years or so in the past. To make it worse, I had absolutely no idea whatsoever how life was on Earth _now_. Damn, this leaves me with one option: improvise.

"I don't know. It was quiet and boring where I grew up. Lot's of humans around," I say, not actually lying. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm curious," was her simple answer. "I heard that some of your colonies are actually better than Earth."

Huh, that might be the truth, but I won't know. As far as I know, we definitely fucked up the planet a bit with all our pollution and tree-cutting so the new, fresh planets might be better from some point of view. "I wouldn't know. The only places I've been to are Earth and the Citadel," I finally say after a moment of thought. "How about you? I grew up on a planet so I have no idea how it's like to grow up on a ship. How's it like?" I ask, finally diverting the conversation to a more comfortable topic: Tali. I wonder how the hell this conversation became about me but it doesn't matter. While I know almost everything Tali can tell me about the Flotilla, I don't really mind hearing it again.

* * *

><p>I carefully pack all my stuff into the small locker. While I wasn't really that tidy, most of my clothes always end up lying around the room, this was a military vessel and I needed to make a good impression. So now I have to orderly place everything into the locker.<p>

The talk with Tali was interesting. It was actually relieving that at least one of the team actually liked me. Then again, Tali is generally nice. We talked about the Flotilla and how life was there. To my surprise she told me some thing that I haven't heard in the games, mostly minor details but still, they were new to me. At some point while we were speaking Shepard came back to the ship and gave that kickass speech to start our mission. I have to admit that her speech was quite... stimulating. Let's just say that right now I had the sudden urge to go shooting geth, screaming bloody murder for Shepard's glory... or something like that. She really knew her speeches.

So I left Tali to her job and even promised to drop by soon to visit again. She seemed happy about the suggestion. Yay, Tali likes me! I'm still a bit sad that Garrus and Wrex don't seem to like me that much. Well, I'm not sure about Garrus now, with me telling him the truth about the mess with Norus. The fact that he told Wrex about that-which-will-not-be-mentioned was a dirty trick, but I'm willing to accept it as a friendly-ass thing from his part. That doesn't mean I'm not going to give him payback. Now I only needed some dirt on him.

I actually made sure to stop by Garrus and officially declare war on him, which he casually accepted with a chuckle and wished me good luck. One thing for sure, it's going to be fun. Not sure he will be smiling once I find some dirt on him.

Wrex... well, I guess the best way to make Wrex friendlier was to prove that I wasn't weak, which meant killing a shitload of geth. It was simple, blunt and quite frankly dangerous, and it scared the hell out of me. I'm sure it wont be that bad, since Shepard is going to be there with me, but I'm still nervous.

I haven't talked with Ashley or Kaidan yet, so I guess I'll just have to make sure to bump into them when I get the chance. For some reason Ashley is still not down here but I'm not that surprised. It's not the game after all and she might actually have things to do, other than tinkering with the same gun again and again.

And finally, pretty much all my stuff is finally in the locker and I realize that I actually have a lot of room left in it. I guess I could store my weapons here, which I already did. This also reminded me that I should really get a better weapon. I don't think my flimsy pistol will suffice. I believe that it's time to bring out the heavy guns... which I didn't have, which made me all the more sad. I guess it's one thing I'll have to ask Shepard about.

"Settling in?" a female voice asks from behind me, startling me a bit. I spin around and speaking of the devil, Shepard is standing there.

"Yeah. Your ship is amazing!" I say, gesturing at the garage around us. "the drive core looks damn awesome too," I add, feeling that I had to say something about it.

"I'm glad you like it."

"So..." I slowly say and lean on my locker. "was there any particular reason you came to see me?" I ask, unable to keep the smile away as I asked the question.

"Not really, just getting to know the crew," she answers calmly.

How cool is that? Shepard's interested in knowing about me. It's quite sad that I cant tell her everything but regardless, I'll still tell her everything I can. "Well, there's not much to know about me. I'm 21, born on Earth, Russia, I have no special education, I'm single and I have small arms training with some tech skills," I quickly recite.

Shepard looks somewhat surprised. "That was thorough," she remarked. "Where did you get the weapon training? Your file doesn't say you joined the Alliance or any other military organization."

Wait. My file? Holy crap, she actually checked my file? Is it even legal? "You can check my files?" I ask suspiciously.

"I'm a Specter," was the simple reply, which pretty much explained everything. Shepard could do whatever she wanted and no one can say a word against it. "And I just checked the civilian database."

Hm, I don't actually know much about it, but as far as I know the civilian database was available pretty much to all authority figures, be it Specters or C-sec. "Is that so? Anything interesting in there?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. Not that I actually needed to know about the files, especially since I had a copy on my omni-tool.

"Not really. As far as the files say, you're an everyday normal guy, until seven months ago, when you dropped off the grid and popped up on the Citadel. So about your weapon training..."

"Chora's Den. I don't know the details but several years ago some guys started a firefight in the club and after that carrying weapon was mandatory for the bouncers there," I explain. "I asked one of my coworkers to teach me how to actually use the thing and he taught me some tricks to do with my omni-tool," well, Jorrun taught me how to do an Overload, which counts as one trick, but Shepard doesn't need to know it. "Which reminds me... I don't really have any armor and the only weapon I have is my pistol. I'm under-armed," I say with a frown.

This actually got her to crack a smile. "I think we can give you one of the spare armors and one of the rifles," she assured me.

Okay, this is quite uncomfortable. "Uhh, I shot an assault rifle once but other than that... the only thing I know how to use is a pistol," I say quietly, looking away. Man, I hope she's not regretting her decision now.

"I think I can arrange something with Chief Williams," Shepard said thoughtfully. "or maybe Kaidan, I'm not sure. We'll see about it later," she finished with an unsure expression.

By the gods, it would surely suck if no one would actually want to train me. Then again, I can just take a rifle and start shooting at crates or something until I get the hang of it. I'm not sure everyone else would appreciate it though. "So where are we heading?" I ask, finally finding a good question to ask. I hope we're going to Therum to get Liara and complete the team.

"Remember that second voice in Saren's recording?" she asked and I quickly nodded. "She's an asari matriarch and we're going after he daughter," she explains and unknowingly made me very happy.

"A matriarch? I heard that they can be tough opponents. Then again, we're not that weak ourselves. With all the resources we have now we can probably storm her place or something," I then see her expression. "We do have resources, right?"

Her somewhat sheepish and disappointed expression told me everything. "The Council... doesn't really give us any support," she says very slowly, looking pained and embarrassed while she talks. "We have to earn our own money."

Ouch. I completely forgot about that small tidbit of information. "That's stupid," I state with full conviction. It could probably be the most stupid thing I've ever heard the Council do, other than denying the Reapers' existence.

"I know!" Shepard agrees with me immediately, sounding very annoyed. "You'd think that an elite force of the Council will actually get some support from them," she mutters angrily under her breath.

"Well, I think we can do this without them," I remark, somewhat smugly. I don't think we can do this, I _know_ we can do this. Also considering I know the freaking future to some extent, we have this in our pocket.

"Really?" she asks, giving me a small smirk. "You're optimistic. We barely even started yet."

I chuckle at that. Knowing the future for the win! "Well, between you and me," I say quietly, glancing at Wrex and making sure he was out of hearing range. "We probably have the best team in the galaxy right now. To make things better, we have a dinosaur with a shotgun," I glance at Wrex as I say that. Shepard snorts at that, though I detect some barely-masked laughter in it. "Saren won't know what hit him."

"I'm glad to know you think our chances are good," she says and I'm glad to see that she now has a full-blown smile on her face. It appears I lightened up the mood!

"Yep, now the only thing our team needs is an undead abomination," I casually remark. "Or a giant talking spirit rainbow bear," as soon as I said that, I effectively murdered all semblance of understanding in the vicinity. Shepard just looked at me with a somewhat narrow-eyed stare, which I could decipher as a very impressive 'Uh, _what?_' look. _Yeaaah_, I think my suggestion is overkill. I also think that I broke Shepard, since she still didn't react after a full minute of silence.

"I... uh, appreciate your... input," she said in length, fighting to pick the right words it seemed.

"Yeah, I think I'll shut up now," I quickly say. I _really_ hope that this wont be mentioned ever again. By the gods, why did I even say that? Probably because I act like an idiot around pretty women, and because she is _Commander Shepard_. It's like talking with a celebrity.

Shepard starts to walk away, but not before saying something that surprised me to the bones. "You're coming with me on the ground team," she says. "I want to see how you handle yourself," she explains before I could ask.

Huh, I was kinda hoping I could go on the next mission, but now that I'm actually going I cant help but feel slightly scared. Just like that, I'm going to fight geth without previous experience. I was a rookie compared to the others on this ship. Of course, Shepard and another one would be with me on this mission but it didn't really make me less nervous. Shit, I hope I wont embarrass myself out there...

Regardless, I put on a brave face. "Roger that, Commander," I say and give her a military salute, which got another smile out of her.

"Oh, you should also visit Dr. Chakwas for a medical check up," she added.

Well, this gives me a good reason to visit Chakwas and Kaidan, which I was planning to do anyway. I give Shepard a nod to let her know I'll do what she said but before I could say anything the intercom interrupts me.

"_Commander, we're approaching the relay,_" Jokers voice echoed through the garage.

Shepard grimaced at that. "I should go. We still need to locate T'Soni," she says tiredly and walks to the elevator.

Joker's message made me perk up. We're approaching the relay already. Shit, I didn't even notice that we left the Citadel! I cant believe I missed it! Now I simply _must_ see the relay at work! "Wait, I'm coming with you," I quickly say and catch up to Shepard. "I want to see the relay," I explain before she could ask. She raised an eyebrow at that and I feel obliged to explain more. Okay, lets make up something believable to tell. "This is my second time on a ship and I slept pretty much through the whole ride to the Citadel."

"Well then, come along," she says as we enter the elevator. Hot damn, I'm going to see the relay up close now! Wow, I'm really getting excited here but I doubt anyone would blame me if they were in my position. This is the first time I will see a relay. However, as the elevator door closes Shepard asks a somewhat awkward question. "Rainbow bear?"

I groan loudly at that. "Don't ask," I sigh as the elevator starts to crawl up. This is going to be a long ride.

* * *

><p><strong>Hell yeah, long ride indeed. Things are already starting so get ready folks, for the ride we are about to have will be a wild one!<strong>

So yeah, I have no idea whether I got the characters right or not, so do tell me about it if you dont mind. Back to topic, I finally got some of the interactions out of the way and to just to give you a warning, I'm going to add some areas to the ship, like the crew quarters since honestly, I've seen like, maybe, ten sleeping pods on the whole ship and considering the ship's crew is a lot more than 10 people, quite possibly maybe four times that number, the only thing I can come up with is that they sleep in shifts, which sucks and is slightly illogical. Hence why I'm probably going to add the crew quarters, like other SI writers did before me. So yeah, I'm going to have fun with that.

**On a side note: Prepare to put on your protective goggles because a supernova is about to happen! This story has **8,789** hits so far! Yes, you know what I mean! After this chapter, I will have _Over Nine Thousand_ hits!** **Not to mention that it has 58 reviews (!), Yeah, for some of you it's not a lot but for me? It's an awfuly huge number of reviews. So yeah, I want to thank all the fans for the support they give this story! Thanks and I love you people! Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think of this chapter and the story as a whole! :D Until next time!**

**Delvaro out.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Aye! Hello there lads,** **happy St. Patrick's day to ya! I have no idea if I have any Irish readers here, but you know what they say, on March 17 everybody's Irish! So yeah, happy St. Patrick's day... or whatever you say on this day! Yeah, before you ask, I'm surprised too that people actually celebrate it here in Russia. There was even a parade somewhere in some town! So yeah, fun times are to be had. **

**Oh, and I'm about to do something incredibly silly, stupid and overused, but you know what, I dont care! You know how many hits I have now? _ITS OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!_** **Yeah, that's it, I'm done. No more silly stuff. Thank you folks! I appreciate the support. :P**

**Here's the new chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"Well, I'm glad to say that you are healthy and in good shape," Chakwas concluded after seemingly hours of tests. In truth it was only around half an hour but I'm always impatient during health checks. It's important, yeah, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. Sometimes it's just unnecessary. Like that one time a few years ago when I went to a doctor and she gave me the whole routine checkup, when she could just ask what the damn problem was. It would've saved me some time.<p>

"Thanks Doctor. I told you I was healthy," I say with a smile. I was in the hospital just two months ago and last I checked I had no health problems.

"I'm a military doctor. I've seen people tell me they're fine despite the gaping hole in their chests. I need to see for myself whether you're fine or not," she says without looking at me. Huh, she actually has a point. It's her job after all and like a certain doctor would say, everybody lies.

"Perhaps so, but I've been through a checkup about two months ago and everything was fine," I remind her. I try to peek over her shoulder to see what she's typing into her computer but eventually decide against it. It would be rude after all.

We sit in silence for a minute or two until Chakwas spoke again. "Well, you're healthy and in pretty good shape so I see no reason for you to stay here," she says and turns around in her chair to look at me. "I'll make sure to tell the Commander that you're good to go."

"Thanks, I'll try not to catch a bullet or two, especially with my teeth," I joked. To my surprise she chuckled at that. Ah, morbid humor, bringing people closer together. "I'll see you later Doc," I say and hop off the cot I was sitting on and move to the door.

"Do try to come with all your limbs attached," she countered. I laugh to myself as I walk out of the med-bay, honestly hoping that I wont lose any limbs, or worse, my head. Well, I think I'll just have to keep my head low and carefully pick my shots. Now I go to...

I've already visited Joker I came over to see the relay. I have to admit that the relay was a bit... anticlimactic. Sure, approaching it was simply breathtaking. It was huge, colossal and simply made me feel insignificant and small. It also had those spinning things in the middle that made the thing glow, which was cool. But as we were about to jump, I was ready for this cool flashy effect, feeling pushed back from the high speed we were about to achieve... but all I saw was a bright blue flash, a sensation as if a slight breeze pushed me back and a second later we were in another part of the galaxy. Sure, from the technological point of view this was simply mind blowing. For someone who expected to see something awesome? It was slightly disappointing. Then again, maybe I blinked and missed the whole thing, I dunno.

Well, what do I do now? I look around and spot Kaidan standing behind the counter at the usual place one can find him in the game. Actually, now that I'm here, I can finally find out what the hell Kaidan is doing there. Sure, I could always think of something, but now I can find an indisputable answer. So without any other plans I walk over to Kaidan.

"Ah, you're Alex, right?" he asks when I approach, wiping some sweat off his brow. Hah, this is exactly the same thing he does in the game!

"Yeah, and you're Kaidan," I answer and with a small smile.

"How are you settling in?" he asks as he... stirs the food? What the hell? I was actually right! I always thought that Kaidan spent his free time tending the food and here he is, manning the kitchen.

"Pretty good. I love the ship, though I'm a bit disappointed that I have to stay in the garage."

Kaidan raised an eyebrow at that. "You're aware that we have crew quarters one floor below the garage?" he asks.

I can only stare at him. Whoa, this is actually surprising. I wonder why no one told me a thing about it. I noticed that the ship seems... bigger than in the game, but I didn't expect it to have an extra floor! And then another realization hit me. "Damn! I have to repack my things again," I groan, getting a chuckle from Kaidan.

"Good luck with that," he says with a smirk. "you think you're ready for our mission?" he suddenly asks.

I think I need to think about the answer for a moment. "I'd like to say yes, but I'm still nervous. I haven't been on such a mission before and the worst I faced was maybe a dozen of mercs. We're chasing a Specter with an army of geth," I say. I have no idea why I was telling this, but I think that if I kept this inside, I'll explode. I didn't want to tell it to Wrex or Garrus and sure as hell not to Shepard. I could tell Tali, but she's busy getting to know the engines and Ashley... I haven't met her yet.

"That's understandable. I was nervous on my first mission too, even scared. Don't worry about it, it's completely normal," he assured me.

"Maybe, but did you face such odds on your first mission?" I ask. I'm slightly annoyed that he brushed off my worries like that. Unlike him, I'm not a trained soldier so I think I have the right to be worried.

"No. I guess I was lucky in that regard. Still, don't worry about it. As long as you're careful and do what the Commander says, you'll be fine," he says with a smile.

"I sure hope so. I'm just a little... under-armed. I just got a pistol and an omni-tool," I say, adressing one of my problems. Hey, I need help and I think that I might as well try and get it.

"I can't help you with the weapons, but I think I can help you with your omni-tool." he says after a moment of thought and I perk up at this. That's odd, I completely forgot that Kaidan was a tech specialist. "What can you do?"

"Well, I can do an Overload, though it's not very strong, barely does anything and is better suited to be a distraction," I admit. Maybe he can help m with it. It's honestly annoyed me each time I used it and it's only done a half-assed job. "Though I did get a new omni-tool before I came here, unfortunately I didn't use it in combat yet," I added. I haven't tested it so maybe now my Overload is better, who knows. Still, Kaidan could teach me a thing or two, like hacking locks, which is always useful.

He hummed in thought. "Let me see your omni-tool," he requested. With a shrug I remove the new omni-tool and give it to him. He quickly replaced his own omni-tool with mine and started fiddling with it. I honestly have no idea what he's doing with it, considering this omni-tool is new and I haven't even used it yet. I should've brought the old one...

Well, since I'm already here I might as well ask. "So why are you working in the kitchen, if you don't mind me asking," I ask with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you were part of the ground team."

"I don't know, it always felt nice to work in the kitchen, so I try to cook if I get the chance," he explained without looking at me, still examining my omni-tool.

"So you're the ship's cook?" I ask with a smirk.

"Oh, no! I just like to help out here, and Dufour doesn't mind, since it gives him extra breaks," he explains. I have no idea who this Dufour was, but I'm going to assume that he's the usual cook.

"That's nice," I say. I love to cook too. Unfortunately, I really don't know how to make more than two or three dishes, though I've been told that I make a damn good Shakshuka. Other than some scrambled eggs and fried chicken, I couldn't do anything else. I worked in a restaurant several years ago and picked up some things but I quit after about a year working there since they refused to promote me. Being a dishwasher for over a year sucked.

"Well, I'm done," he stated and handed me my omni-tool. "the usual limiters placed on omni-tools are gone and it raises some questions," he adds, looking at me questioningly. "this is an Alliance-issue omni-tool. Military grade," he elaborates.

Goddamn, Chairman wasn't joking! By the gods, please don't tell me he really stole it! Quick, think of something to say, something believable! "It was a gift from a friend. He retired from the Alliance some years ago," I say. Okay, I'm not sure that dumping it on Johnson was a good idea, but I doubt someone will actually check if I'm lying. "Huh, didn't know it was military grade," I add, trying to sound impressed and surprised.

"You better believe it, it's definitely military grade. Anyway, you'll have no problems with your Overload now. Most shields will get fried now. It's a good omni-tool," he remarks.

Huh, well look at that. The Chairman actually gave me a damn useful gift. Quite nice of him. I still dislike him though, I doubt he can change it even if he gives me enough omni-tools to supply a whole army. I don't hate him, but I still think he's a major asshole.

"Cool," I say with a grin. Yay, I had a good omni-tool now! Shields, _beware_. "Hey, think you could show me some tricks? It would be nice to know something other than Overload," I finally go out with my request. I have no biotics or any other special abilities, so that left me only with tech skills, and I won't mind having some advantage over my enemies.

"Hm, I think I can show you a thing or two when we have some free time," he agreed. Oh, that's just great! I hope he can teach me some good things, like how to hack a geth or something. On the other hand, maybe I should go to Tali if I want to hack geth, considering she's our resident expert on how they work.

"Sweet! I'll hold you to it," I say with a grin. "For now, I think I need to get some weapons and armor. I hear we have a mission soon so I better get ready. I'll see you later."

"Sure, kid. I'll see you later," he replies. Oh come on, why is he calling me a kid anyway? I'm twenty-one... well, twenty-two according to my files, and he's around thirty or so? He's not that older than me!

Still, I don't say anything and leave quietly. I'm not in the mood to bicker with Kaidan now and I still need to get some damn weapons! I walk over to the elevator, greeting some of the crewmen who were passing by, and walked into it with another crewman, who I guessed was an engineer or something.

When the elevator finally reaches down I see the whole company down there, this time including Ashley. I give a nod to Wrex as I pass by, who ignores me, and make a beeline to Ashley.

Ashley looks the same as she did in the game, well, not the same since here she looked _a lot_ better. Her hair is still in that bun of hers and she stands in the exact same place, in front of that table. I stop right beside her and look at what she's doing. She doesn't say anything, or react in any way to my presence so I just use the opportunity to see what she's doing.

I have to say that I'm very impressed. I knew how to take apart my pistol, actually did it several times but I just couldn't do it _this_ fast. Her hands were _flying_ over the assault rifle she was taking apart. Each time her hand zipper over the rifle, one part was gone and placed on the table, a second later another part joined the first one. Holy crap, I couldn't even keep up! I try to follow her every movement but I cant help but miss some thing. In only about forty seconds she already took it apart and then assembled the rifle and placed it on the table.

I still stare at the rifle with some amazement before I realize that she's looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Do you need anything?" she asks.

I let out a whistle. "Color me impressed!" I say, looking at the rifle again. "I haven't seen anyone take apart a rifle so fast," I say with some amount of awe. It was amazing, honestly. Then again, I havent seen anyone taking apart any weapons, really, though I've been told that my mom could take apart an AK-47 and then put it back together in only 53 seconds... and that's damn _awesome,_ considering she was a schoolgirl when she did it.

"It was nothing. I wasn't even trying to break my record," she replies with a smirk. Oh, now that's just so smug of you, Ash.

I snort at that. "Either way, I'm not going to compete with you. Ever," I say with conviction. "It takes me around a minute and a half to do that with my pistol," I add. Well, it was closer to two minutes than I would like, but I wasn't going to admit it.

"Not bad, considering you have no military training," she remarks, not sounding impressed at the slightest. "Still, could be better."

"I guess," I say sheepishly. I was a decent shot but I never really bothered to train myself in disassembling speed. "I've been using a pistol for around half a year for now but I guess I could use some training."

"You should. Considering what we're up against, getting better is a good idea," she agrees with me, turning her attention back to the table, this time taking a pistol.

"So... well, the reason I came here is to ask you something," I start, getting her full attention again. "I'd like to use an assault rifle but, well, I used one only once and I think I really need some training with it," I say awkwardly. Wow, it's kinda weird to ask training from Ash, dunno why. I feel kinda awkward.

She stares at me for several seconds before she grabs the rifle from the table and tosses it to me. I quickly grab it, almost dropping it, but I manage to avoid some embarrassment, though I notice her smirk at how I caught it. I send her a questioning look, trying to figure out why she gave me the rifle now. Wordlessly, she beckoned me to follow her to the other side of the garage, where the Mako was.

By now everyone's attention was on us. Wrex was looking at us with mild curiosity and Garrus stopped doing his calibrations... or whatever it is he was doing there. You simply _can't_ calibrate one thing so much. "Uh, do you want me to shoot Garrus or something?" I slowly ask, getting an annoyed look from said turian.

Ashley snorts at that. "Tempting, but no," she says, getting an insulted scoff from Garrus. "I want you to shoot those crates," she says, pointing at the crates near her table.

Oh, is that all? Well, what can I do? The lady asked! I honestly have no idea what I'm doing so this only leaves me with improvisation. I shoulder the rifle just like I've seen people in movies and games do and take aim. It's quite different from the old rifle I used years ago, but I quickly get the hang of it. I think I'll fire a short burst, since I'm not sure they'll appreciate fully automatic fire in here. I slowly exhale, steel myself and pull the trigger.

A short burst of gunfire thunders and the recoil hits me. _Hard_. Goddammit! I can't help but wince at the suddenness of the recoil, even though I braced myself just for it. Wow, it feels like I was punched on the shoulder... ow. This will take some time to get used to. At least I actually hit the target, not exactly where I was aiming, but I still hit the crate.

"Good, get used to the recoil for now," Ash instructed. "Keep shooting in short bursts."

I shouldered the rifle again and repeated the steps, only this time Ash stepped in and corrected my stance, quite roughly too. Ow, she does it nearly as rough as Jorrun! I'm easy to bruise, dammit! Now that I was in the proper stance I lined the target and once again pulled the trigger. This time the recoil wasn't as bad, since I already knew how it was like. It was still very uncomfortable to my shoulder. And I was more accurate now.

I kept shooting at the crate for several minutes, or so I think, I kinda lost any sense of time with having so much fun. Wrex apparently got bored since he went back to... lollygaggin, though he was sending a glance or two once in a while. Garrus made himself comfortable and took a seat on one of the crates. He was even nice enough to offer an advice once, though I noticed it annoyed Ashley for some reason.

"So... I heard you were on Eden Prime," I comment while I wait for my rifle to cool down.

This caused Ashley to freeze for a moment before she nods. "Yeah..." she said quietly. "It was a slaughter. Lost my whole unit," she says bitterly.

Ouch. Crap, why did I have to open my mouth and start asking about uncomfortable topics? Wow, now there's this whole uncomfortable silence. Even Garrus seems to be somewhat uncomfortable now. Ashley looks like she zoned off, staring into the distance, lost in thoughts. And just like that, it's gone and she looks at me. "Don't worry about it. I... I got over it," she said. Sorry Ash, you seem to be a bad liar, because you're definitely not over it. However, I'm not sure I can actually help her here. I'm simply not qualified to deal with such things.

"Sorry," I mutter. Wow, what can I say to something like this? "I don't know how it feels, but I can guess that it's not easy for you," I slowly say, hoping that I'm not sounding like an idiot. "At least we're chasing the one who is responsible," I add, somewhat hopefully.

"That we are," Ashely agrees with a frown. Okay, note to self: file Eden Prime under taboo topics with Ashley. It makes me feel a little crappy, but it's just so... awkward and uncomfortable. I think that Shepard is better qualified to talk with her about it than I am. I simply have no idea what to say to her. I never lost any friends and the only thing that I witnessed die were my numerous pets. I still feel sad when I remember how my pet rat died in my hands.

A whole bunch of human friends is quite a bit different than a pet rat. Hence why I'm under-qualified to deal with this.

"Your aim is not that bad but you need to learn how to handle the recoil properly. Other than that, there's hope for you," she continued, as if the whole conversation about Eden Prime never happened.

"Good. Considering this is my second time with an assault rifle, it actually makes me happy," I say with a small grin. I'm actually ecstatic to know that I don't suck with these weapons. To realize that I'm not that bad with something usually makes me happy. Still grinning, I line up the rifle for another shot.

At that moment the elevator doors open and Shepard steps out. She pauses there and looks at us oddly. I note that her eyes travel from our little gathering, to the rifle in my hands and finally to the crate, which looks like swiss cheese at the moment with all the holes in it. "Am I missing something?" she asks with a small smirk.

"Nope," I quickly say. "I'm just practicing, nothing serious."

"I see," she says, eying up the crate again. "Glad to see there are no holes in the walls," she remarks. Shepard, I'm glad too! I can't be gladder.

"Yep, turns out I'm not such a bad shot," I say smugly.

"You're not that good either," Ash pipes in, totally ruining the moment. Why Ash, why? And here I was starting to think that you acknowledged my skills. I deflate and send her a dirty look... and then send Garrus a dirty look for his snickering.

Shepard clears her throat to catch our attention, though I see that she's quite amused by the whole thing. "We located Dr. T'Soni," she says. "we're going to arrive at her location in a few hours so rest and get ready. Alex, Tali and Wrex are coming with me to pick her up," she stated in a somewhat official manner. With that Shepard turns and walks to Engineering, probably to let Tali know that she was coming with us.

I stay rooted to my spot, staring after Shepard. I already knew that I was going to go with Shepard, but this just made this official. I'm going with the ground team, to a world filled with lava, a small geth army, a shitload of geth armatures and into a ruin that will start collapsing on our heads as soon as we get Liara.

By the nine hells, I'm _so_ screwed.

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><p><strong>Oh yeah, you can already guess what's going to be in the next chapter. You dont have to be a genius to figure it out. :P Liara's going to join the team soon, but until then, we still have to get to her!<br>**

**Yeah, thank you all for reading the story and commenting! I particularly loved some of the recent reviews (you can't miss those, they're long and big) simply because they pointed out interesting facts that could overall improve the story! I love those kinds of review, especially if they help me improve. I've taken all your suggestions into consideration and I already replied to some of you. Still, thanks! All the others, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think of the story, whether you noticed something done wrong or you think could be done better. Feel free to say something sucks, just tell me _why_ it sucks. ****So yeah, thanks for all the support and reviews!**

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Yeah, I'm back once again. So... what can I say now? Okay, first of all, I eventually decided to split the chapter into two parts, so now you get this and the rest of the stuff you'll get in the next chapter. Dunno, just decided to write the mission separately, though I'm sure you wont really mind. So yeah, we have another team building chapter, so enjoy it! **

**Some of my reviewers pointed out some several fine points, one of them even created a small plot hole! Yeah, while I'm sure not many of you actually care for the fine, tiny details that dont even affect the story overall, I sure try to get all the things right, and that includes the small, tiny details.**** Sure, I can fix it up whenever I want but for some, utterly unexplained reason, I feel incredibly lazy at the moment so I might do it a bit later. Still, thanks a lot for pointing it out for me, Liege Lord. I love getting reviews like these, since they help me improve the story. ^^**

**So yeah, I'm not going to waste anymore of your time, so here you go. Enjoy the new chapter.**

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><p>"Damn it," I mutter under my breathe as I lose another node. I glance to the other side of the garage where Garrus is sitting, sending me a smug look. I quickly send some of my forces to capture Garrus' least defended node. I deliberately send my weakest units and leave my best to fight against Garrus' main forces and if my gamble pays off, Garrus will split his forces and lose the number advantage he has over me. The small task group I sent was probably doomed, since by now all Garrus' units were nearly fully upgraded but I still had a chance to win.<p>

It was kinda weird. Here I am, soon to go on a very dangerous mission where I was going to be shot at... and I'm sitting here in the garage, playing an omni-game against Garrus. To make it worse, I was losing. Badly.

The game was quite nice though. It reminded me of the Total War games I played sometimes, only much more simplified. When I saw Garrus playing this game on his omni-tool I was simply too curious to ignore it and asked him where he got it. After a few quick answers, I was already downloading a copy and as soon as I got it I challenged Garrus to a game.

That was a bad idea, obviously but as soon as I learned all the game mechanics I stopped sucking so badly. It wasn't that complicated anyway. You had a map and numerous nodes on it. You start with basic units and with every node you capture, you can upgrade them and unlock new unit types. Pretty simple in my opinion. Too bad Garrus was freaking dominating me in this game. It's like he was cheating, doing way too many things at the same time. By the time I captured two nods and unlocked my heavy krogan troopers, Garrus already had freaking _ten_ nodes, a shitload of snipers, artillery bonus power and a goddamned fully upgraded STG unit that always kept ambushing my forces and annihilating me.

"Doesn't look like you're doing too well," Ash remarks with a smirk as she looked over my shoulder.

"You think?" I growl. This had no effect on her I think, since she just chuckles.

"You picked a bad opponent for your first game," Garrus says from the other side of the room. "I'm pro in this game," he adds smugly.

"Is that so?" I say mockingly, diverting my snipers to his flanks. From there I can harass him while my main forces keep him in place.

"Yep. Last time I checked I was ranked in the 300,000's," he casually says.

Well, that doesn't sound very impressive. "How many people play this game?" I ask as my snipers finally fall in place. If this goes according to plan, his main forces will be decimated and I'll have breathing room to recapture some nodes.

"Oh, around twenty million," he remarks offhandedly. "give or take a million or two," This actually makes me pause. _Now_ it's damn impressive. Holy crap, and I picked my first game to be against him. He was right, it was a bad idea.

"Shit. How long were you playing this game to get this good?" I say as I direct my snipers to the cliffs, right above the place Garrus' army will pass through.

"A couple of years now," he replies, looking at his screen with extreme concentration.

"Huh, didn't you have work? This doesn't instill me with much faith in C-sec," I joke, grinning evilly. My ambush was set and now his plans are ruined!

Garrus snorted at my question. "Do what, paperwork?" he asks with a roll of his eyes but then pauses and adopts a thoughtful look. "Huh, I wonder why I never thought of that... this definitely explains some things," he finished with a shrug.

I snicker at his words. I'm quite surprised at how... friendly we got so far. Well, not really. This is just the first conversation I had with him where he didn't glare or accuse me of something I allegedly did. Oh, we traded insults here and there but this was promising so far. Give me another month and Garrus and I will be best buddies! I look back at the screen and I see... wait, where are my snipers?

"Argh! Fuck your goddamned STG unit!" I growl at him when I spot his retreating assassins. He simply responds with an evil grin. That's it, I already lost this game since I don't have that many units remaining and I was at a big disadvantage. I send out my krogan battlemaster unit, quickly following with the rest of my army, headlong into Garrus' army.

"What, giving up already?" Garrus asks me with disappointment.

"Bah! I just picked the wrong approach against you," I shoot back. It was true though. Garrus fought dirty, going with the 'wear out and finish off' tactic, which worked wonders against my approach. I picked units that could deal a lot of damage and soak up it up without dying too quickly. With his army of snipers, by the time my units got into battle with his main forces, they were already more than half-dead.

"That you did," Garrus agrees. Soon enough the last of my units died and the game stopped, displaying a 'you lose' message in large, red letters, probably to let it sink in. I got some points despite my defeat, though what I was supposed to do with them was still beyond me. I'll find out later, I guess. "that was very... krogan of you," he remarked.

"Screw you. Next time I'll kick your ass," I promised him. Indeed, now that I knew how Garrus played I think I could come up with a few tactics against him, maybe even win.

"Good luck with that, though you will probably break your leg on it," he remarks nonchalantly. I give him a halfhearted glare and decided not to say anything. I'll shove these words down his throat when I'll kick his ass.

"I can see you're ready," an accented voice suddenly remarks from behind me. Jesus! I spin around and see Tali standing right behind me. I haven't heard her approach. "Oh, uh, sorry," she mutters when I breathed in relief.

"No worries, just not used to to people sneaking up behind me," I say. Damn, I hate it when people sneak up on me! Especially when they're standing right behind me. It's probably from all those horror movies I watched as a kid. Those cheap scares are annoying as hell. "But yeah, I guess I'm ready."

Now that the game was over, I had nothing to distract me from what was ahead. I was physically ready. I got a standard Alliance-issue armor and I had to admit that it was surprisingly comfortable. It also wasn't as heavy as I suspected it would be. I had doubts it would stop a lot of bullets but it was doubtlessly better than just a shirt and the shield module that came with the armor was infinitely better than the piece of crap I've been using so far. My new assault rifle and trusty pistol were already attached to my armor, waiting to be used. Yeah, physically I was more than ready. I had equipment and I had enough training to go by.

Emotionally? I'm not very sure. I'm incredibly nervous. Maybe even scared. I've been in dangerous situations but unlike that time with the mercs, or that first job for Fist, I actually _know_ what I'm up against, and the odds aren't exactly nice. There isn't a load button if I accidentally catch a bullet with my head.

To make matters worse, we're going down with the Mako. As in, dropping from who knows how high in a fucking vehicle. And if my memory is right, and it usually is, I recall the Mako being quite... bouncy.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I repeat, more to myself than to Tali. "Just made some last minute preparations."

"You call playing omni-games last minute preparations?" Ash asks with relative amusement.

"Sure. It calms the nerves and it beats checking your weapons over and over again, or calibrating stuff without stop," I shoot back with a small smirk. Ash was rather adamant about checking the weapon's condition before missions. She practically forced me to triple-check the weapon and suggested I do it a couple of more times to be sure. Sure, it made a lot of sense, since no one wanted their weapon to malfunction during a firefight but this was a bit close to obsession. It almost made me think she had an obsession like Garrus has with calibrations! "And I hear that some turians beat the shit out of eachother before some missions," I add, sending a glance to Garrus.

Ash looked doubtful, probably wondering why would anyone do that in the first place but her expression quickly turned into a surprised one when Garrus nodded. "It's true. I've done it more than a couple of times. It's a good way to relieve some stress," Garrus explains, more for Ashley's and Tali's sake. "I'm surprised you actually know about it," he asks me.

Well, you told it to Shepard in the second game, not that you know. "My best friend is a turian. He told me a bit about his military life," was the quick explanation I provide. Well, admittedly I really didn't know that much about Jorrun's life, but I knew enough to call him a good friend.

"You're best friends with a turian?" Ash asks in surprise and I detect a hint of something in her voice. I dunno, it sounded like discomfort, or something.

"Yeah. Is there anything wrong with it?" I ask, putting on a puzzled face. I know that Ash has some xenophobic tendencies... well, not really xenophobic. She just doesn't really trust aliens, and that's probably because she never worked with them, as far as I know at least.

"No. Usually our species' don't really get along that well," she says and I see Garrus nod in agreement. That's true as well. I still remember my first day on the Citadel, and all the turians who gave me rather... angry looks. It's funny too since Jorrun was among them at first.

"Well, he didn't really like me at first," I feel the need to point that out. "he actually called me 'hey you' for the first couple of days," I say nostalgically, remembering when I just started working there. "after a while I guess I won him over. He actually likes me now!" I say cheerfully.

"Good for you," Ash shrugs it off, though I cant help but feel she's dismissive about it.

"Yep, good indeed. He taught me how to shoot properly and even taught me several fighting moves and so on," I point out.

"Fighting moves?" Garrus asks. "which ones?"

"Uh..." I find myself without an answer. Now that I think of it, I never really learned the names of the styles, save for what Jorrun told me when I asked. Well, I have to say something, right? "well, I have no idea what it's called. He said that my 'primitive monkey mouth' is unable to pronounce it without screwing it up," I say thoughtfully. Great, now my brain is trying to think up unpronounceable names for the moves I knew.

"And you're friends with him?" Tali asks somewhat incredulously. I give her a confused look in return. "He called you a primitive monkey, though I have no idea what a monkey is, I'm pretty sure he meant it as an insult," she explaines.

"Hah, I hinted that he had bird brains once, even called him Birdie," I recall with some fondness. And horror, since for some reason, probably stupidity, I used that silly and admittedly lame remark during a spar. I had no idea my arm could bend that way without breaking! "we never took it seriously, at least I didn't."

"So what did he teach you?" Garrus asks, returning me to the previous topic.

"Like I said, I have no idea what's it called. I do know that its the most basic thing they teach to your recruits. That self-defense martial art."

"Ah, that one?" Garrus says thoughtfully. "Didn't think a human will be interested in learning it. It wont be effective on most turians," he remarks.

"Yeah, I know," I say, mentally wincing at the times I fought a sober turian. Pretty much every single time I had my ass kicked or ended up being strangled. Tough times. "You guys are... tougher. Your arms don't bend like I want them to. Softer races on the other hand are easier to handle. Dislocated a salarian's shoulder once and accidentally broke a human's arm with a little too much force," I say, recalling that drunk guy at the Den. I just wanted to painfully twist his arm and throw him outside but then I hear this loud snap and he starts writhing and screaming in pain. I think I nearly had a heart attack from the surprise I got!

Ashley hums in thought. "Doesn't sound bad, but I bet I can easily beat it," she says matter-of-factly. Garrus sends he a pointed look and she frowns at him. "What? Everyone knows that what they teach in the Alliance is the best in the galaxy," she points out.

Garrus snorts loudly at that. "I somehow doubt it. You haven't even seen our close combat specialists. They can break your limbs in ways you cant even imagine. They can bend you like a... what was that thing... ah! They can bend you like a pretzel!"

"We can find and exploit weakness in every possible style there is. Whatever you can come up with, we can counter. We don't need those wimpy grappling dances you call martial arts to beat someone to the ground."

"That's because you always fight dirty!"

Throughout the exchange Tali and I were turning our heads from one speaker to another, as if it was a verbal tennis match. Or ping-pong, because I always loved it more than tennis. I have to admit that this was rather... fun. Their voice were gradually getting louder and when they finally ran out of logical reasons to point out why their style was better, they started finding less... reasonable ones and more obscure ones. I had to admit that I was trying not to laugh throughout their exchange.

"I'd just headbutt them to shut them up," Wrex gruffly remarks from right beside me. Jesus! Why do everyone insist on sneaking up on me? And how the hell did he do it anyway? Wrex is kinda big, not to mention heavy. I think I could hear his footsteps from the other side of the room! Apparently Wrex could be sneaky... which is something scary.

"I doubt Shepard will appreciate you giving them concussions," I remark when I calm myself. Thankfully I didn't jump like an idiot this time.

"I don't think she'll notice," he mutters. Huh, was that a joke, Wrex? How pleasant.

"I think she will. You will probably leave a dent."

"Probably," he agrees.

I give him a look and see that he's ready for the mission. Probably. He's wearing the same armor and the only difference is that his weapons are with him. He looked exactly the same but I think that he moved away from his spot for the first time since we arrived to the ship. "Ready for the mission?" I ask conversationally.

"I'm shaking from the excitement," he says monotonously. I give him a blank stare, which he gladly returns. We stare at each other for several seconds until he finally nods. "I'm always ready."

"Good. Shepard probably expects trouble if she's taking you with us," I point out. "No offense, but you're a tank on legs," I add.

"None taken," he says with a small, amused snort.

From there we stand in silence. I simply watch how Garrus and Ashley bicker about fighting while we just watch it. Wrex and Tali exchanged words about something, but I haven't been listening at that moment so I missed what they talked about. At the moment I was trying to come up with plans to deal with the geth. Sure, I knew exactly where all the geth were, for the most part, and I could use it to my advantage. There was also this whole armature platform that we had to destroy before entering the ruins. I was nervous as hell. Just because I knew stuff, didn't mean I could actually deal with it.

All the mental preparation I was doing came to an abrupt end when the elevator doors opened and Shepard stepped out, already in her armor and armed to the teeth. Despite the fact that I've already seen her armed and armored on the Citadel, she still looked amazing right now, and more importantly, imposing. There was this air about her that made me feel like she can do anything. Regardless of what happens, I'm gonna do my best for her.

"Everyone ready?" Shepard asks loudly. In that instance Ash and Garrus stop bickering and Tali, Wrex and I turn around to face Shepard.

"We're ready, Commander," Tali speaks for us all. I can't help but grin at the scene. What this moment needs is a good motivational music in the background.

Shepard looks at each of us for several seconds before she nods at us. "Good. Climb into the Mako and let's get this started," she says with a smirk. Hot damn! This is so epically awesome! We really do need some music for this.

"Hey kid!" Ash yells and I look back. Why was everyone insisting on calling me kid? They're not that much older than me, for fuck's sake! As soon as I look back I see a small object flying at me. I quickly catch it and look at it. It's a sheathe, and I pull out the handle and look at the rather impressive looking combat knife. It obviously wasn't new, since I saw a tiny notch there but other than that, it seemed to be in good condition. I send Ash a questioning look, trying to convey my confusion into the stare. Why would I bring a knife into a firefight? "Just in case!" she replies with a small smirk and a shrug.

Well, how can I say no to that? Hmm, if I stab a geth, will it actually do something to it? Do they feel pain, or anything else? I have no idea, I think I'll have to ask Tali about it. "Thanks!" I shout back and quickly move to the Mako, since I was the only one not on board yet.

Okay, I have to admit that the Mako was a bit... cramped. Tali had no problems at all from what I see, since she was already in her seat and strapped in. Wrex on the other hand was having a... hard time. His head was nearly pressed up against the ceiling of the Mako and he had be hunched all the while, not to mention that he couldn't be strapped properly, instead having to use the small seat belt that would probably snap against his weight. He surely didn't seem pleased at the slightest. He was also muttering something to himself, though I couldn't really discern what he was saying.

I take the seat right by Tali and strap myself in, bringing down this harness over my shoulder that reminded me of those roller coaster rides. "You've ever done this before?" Tali asks me quietly.

I swallow nervously. "Nope. You?" I ask back and she shook her head. I send a glance at Wrex, who was still fiddling with his seat belt. Yeah, I think I wont bother him for now.

"No," she mutters nervously.

"Yeah. I'm really nervous right now so... uh, I think I'm just going to hold this thing tight and close my eyes until this is all over," I say, grabbing the harness and holding all with all my strength.

"That's actually some good advice," Tali agrees, quickly doing the same thing.

"Joker, bring us in," Shepard says loudly from the front of the Mako.

"_Roger that, Commander,"_ Joker responds cheerily. I look to the front of the Mako and through the windshield I see the garage doors slowly opening, revealing the dark skies outside. The engine roars to life and without any warning we start moving towards the open garage doors and out into the skies outside.

Oh god, here we go.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, nothing important really happens in this chapter, other than more talking with the characters, but next chapter is Therum and fun times will be had there. Including lava-induced deaths, and everyone loves those.<strong> **Really, how many of you couldnt resist the urge to shove those pesky geth armaments into a river of lava? I sure couldnt. Dont even try to deny that the thought never crossed your minds.**

**On a side note: I just found out that bioware plans on releasing a new DLC, called 'The Truth' which supposedly adds an epilogue to the story, or changes the ending or something. Or it just explains the various astrological plot holes that happen in the last ten minutes of the game. It also should add some multiplayer content, like the geth and batarians, and the protheans or something, but that's not really important. I read an article that said that because the REAL ME3 ending was leaked before the game came out, they created the shitty ending we got. So perhaps, just perhaps this new DLC will be the real ending that we all want. ****Supposedly, this DLC has the real ending, but I just cant keep my hopes up right now, because I dont want to get punched in the balls again like that. Still, I will hope for the best and prepare for the worst.**

**However, a small, evil and whispering part of my brain reminds me that this new DLC thing comes out in april, and my evil brain points out that they will probably release it on april 1st. You know, just to kick us down while were down. **

**Still, I hope for the best. The amount of hate Bioware got from the fans is simply astonishing. There are online petitions to change the end and people donate money to pay Bioware to change it. More shocking, there were numerous death threats to the developers and their families (!) which is a bit extreme in my opinion.**

**Regardless, we can only hope that they will change the ending. Until next time.**

**Delvaro out.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Oooh, yeah! I'm back! So yeah, I think I'm going to keep this short. I don't really have anything important to say anyway. So here you go! The new chapter, which happens to be Therum! Now let's have fun with the Mako!**

* * *

><p>"Motherfuuuuuckeeeer!" I scream, or shriek – I'm not sure how I sounded at the moment – as I suddenly feel my stomach rise into my throat and then, all of a sudden and without any warning sink all the way down to my seat. With a mighty slam we land on the ground. I have to note that when we land, my head hits the harness around my head several times, as if it was a ping-pong ball. Ow.<p>

"Holy shiiiit!" I scream again when my insides finally settle into their rightful places.

"You can stop screaming now," Tali points out, though I notice she's out of breathe.

"Holy fucking shit," I say breathlessly. This was intense! This was the most intense thing I've ever done! Roller coasters have nothing on the Mako! Roller coasters sit in the corner, crying at night when they remember how much more intense the Mako is!

I look at Wrex and he's looking... normal. I mean, he doesn't even look bothered at all, as if he's doing this every morning before breakfast. He sees me looking at him and chuckles. "You scream like an adolescent woman," he points out.

What? Oh come on Wrex, you cant hold it against me. This was the first time I ever dropped down from the sky! "What's that supposed to mean?" Shepard asks, twisted around in her seat so she could look at us. She grins and looks at me. "Fun, isn't it?"

Fun? Is she insane? This was probable the most... oh who am I kidding? "Hell yeah," I say with a short laugh. "this was probably the craziest thing I've ever done," I say with all honesty.

"Good. You should tone down the screaming though. It's bad for the ears," she advices. Oh screw you Shepard. This was freaking _insane!_ My heart is still beating three times faster than normal. Jesus, I think it's going to explode with the speed it's beating at. I think that somewhere during the last six months I somehow went insane, because I actually don't mind doing this _again_.

The Mako's engine roars again and with a jerk, we start moving again. Okay, this is not fun anymore. The ride is incredibly... bouncy. The whole vehicle shakes as if we're riding on a collapsing mountain during an earthquake.

"_Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange, like off the damn charts. It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few clicks away from the drop zone,_" Joker helpfully informs us.

"Roger that, Joker," Shepard responds.

"Huh, strange readings on what should've been a simple pick up mission..." I slowly say. I even hum thoughtfully in the end. "lets go check it out!" I finish excitedly.

Shepard lets out an amused chuckle. "Sure. It's probably nothing!" she plays along. "I mean, what could possibly happen?"

A sudden dreadful feeling settles down on me and Wrex groans loudly and looks at with exasperation. "Look what you made her do," he says disappointingly.

"What did I do?" I ask in confusion.

"You made her say 'what could possibly happen'. With my experience, we're probably going to get attacked by a thresher maw or two," Wrex mutters loudly and angrily.

"Come on, it cant be that bad," I say in a futile attempt to improve his mood.

At that moment a shadow passes over the Mako and a loud noise drowns all other sound. We all look at the front of the Mako, particularly at Shepard, who had a better view than us. She leaned forward and looked up. "Oh, would you look at that? A geth ship," she comments casually, as if she talks about the weather.

Wrex doesn't say anything, instead he just gives me this long, pointed look. To my horror, Tali is giving me the same look. Hey, the geth were going to show up anyway, don't blame me for this!

"Uh..." Shepard begins, once again turning around in her chair to look at us. Wait a minute, we're still moving! By the nine hells, Shepard, watch the fucking road! "Alex! Come over here and help me with the canon," she ordered and thankfully turned back to the road.

By the gods, Shepard is a crazy driver. Suddenly, I'm more scared of the Mako than the geth. Well, an order is an order. I quickly remove the harness and the seat belt and climb out of my seat and make my way to the seat next to Shepard as fast as I can. Unfortunately as I was halfway there the Mako crossed a particularly nasty bump, which launched me up. My head smashed against the ceiling in a particularly painful fashion and from there I landed on Wrex. The krogan muttered something about unstable humans and pushed me back to my feet and from there I quickly make it to the front seat without anymore injuries.

"Okay," I slowly say as I strap on the seat belt and inspect what was in front of me. There was a turned-off screen in front of me and something which looked like a joystick with many other buttons around it. "How the hell do I use this?"

"You played video games right? You turn on the screen," she reached to the console and turned on the screen, tearing her eyes off the road. Again. The screen was filled with what I assumed the canon was seeing. "You move around this thing, use that zoom button when you need to and pull the trigger to shoot and that second button for the big gun," was her quick instruction. I quickly memorize everything, honestly surprised at how simple it was, and quickly take hold of the joystick.

"Okay, what are we shooting?" I ask and exactly at that moment one of those blue... thing the armatures shoot – I can only assume it's plasma – zips right in front of the windshield. Both Shepard and I lean back in our seats from the suddenness of the projectile's appearance. "Whoa!" both Shepard and I exclaim at the same time.

"Yeah, it's hostile alright! Shoot it, shoot it!" Shepard barks as she turns around the Mako.

I quickly turn around our cannon and line up the crosshair on one of the armatures. I press the big red button on top of the joystick. The cannon booms loudly and a second later I see the armature engulfed by an explosion but as the smoke clears I see that it wasn't enough. Goddamn, with the Mako bouncing around like this aiming is _hard! _I constantly correct the aim and hold down the trigger, showering the armature with the machinegun. The armature unleashing another round from it's plasma cannon but Shepard simply pulls a small lever which reminded me of a handbrake but it was obviously something else. As soon as she pulls it I feel my stomach sink into the seat as we suddenly climb up, allowing the plasma bolt to pass beneath us.

So that's how she activates the thrusters! Huh, maybe by the time this is over I'll know how to operate the Mako! I turn my attention back to the screen, which politely notifies me that the cannon is ready to fire again. I line up the shot again and press the button. The armature is engulfed by an explosion again but this time I can see armature pieces flying out of the smoke. Awesome! "One of them is down!" I announce.

"Good job!" Shepard congratulates as she activates the thrusters again to jump over another plasma bolt.

I turn the cannon, and the camera, to the second armature and pepper it with the smaller rounds. They crash into it's shields and do no damage but they surely weaken it's shields. As we gradually get closer to it I unleash another canon round into the armature but it's still not done yet. To my dismay, I notice that we're starting to move faster and faster and get closer and closer to the armature. "Uh, Shepard?" I carefully ask as I continue shooting the armature, which was already charging another shot. "Shepard?" I ask more forcefully when Shepard doesn't slow down or do anything against the threat.

The armature unleashes another plasma round but Shepard simply plows us through the round, which harmlessly dissipates against our shields and a second later, much to my dismay, she crashes the Mako right into the armature.

There is a terrible screeching sound as the armature is flattened on the front of the Mako and a second later, as if the Mako is some horrible beast, the armature is swallowed beneath the vehicle. The Mako bounces horrifically several times but quickly stops. I swivel around the cannon to look back and see the crushed, broken remains of the geth armature.

I slowly look at Shepard who glanced at me from the corner of her eye. "What?" she asks indignantly. I can only shake my head at this. Shepard then frowns and turns around in her seat to look at the rest of the ground team, once _again,_ taking her eyes off the road. "Hey Tali, those big things on four legs, shooting bright blue balls of death. What are they?" she curiously asks as I'm staring to panic here. We're approaching a particular turn in the path and beyond the turn is a freaking river of lava. To my horror, Shepard still doesn't turn around to watch the road.

"Those would be geth armatures. They have strong shields and while alone they are not dangerous, they can be a big problem in large numbers," Tali quickly supplied.

"Shepard, _please_ watch the road!" I shout. This river of lava is getting uncomfortably close! Any second now...

"Thanks for the info," Shepard thanks Tali and quickly turns around and steers us away from fiery doom.

I breathe out a long relieved sigh. By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss. "Shepard, do you even have a driver's license?" I ask when we're finally away from any large lava concentrations.

Shepard looks at me incredulously as if I just said something incredibly stupid. Oh, _Goddamn! _This explains many things. In the game, it wasn't the controls that sucked, it was Shepard's driving skills.

* * *

><p>Soon enough we finally reach the first camp... thing. I'm not really sure of the place's purpose. Still, we made quick work of the turrets outside and I had to admit that it was a bit anticlimactic, since just like in the game, the missiles traveled much slower than I expected, slow enough for Shepard to move the Mako out of the way.<p>

And so we enter the camp... well, more accurately we plow through a pair of geth platforms and enter the camp. I have to admit that the geth actually look awesome in my opinion. Sadly, I don't have any time to check them out since the rest of the geth opened fire at us. Thankfully, most of what they fired at us barely scratched our shields but the rocket troopers were a bigger threat, so I targeted them first and they stood no chance against the combined might of the cannon and the machinegun.

All the while, Shepard was almost leisurely driving the Mako around in circles, oddly enough with a small smirk on her lips. I counted around four geth that disappeared beneath our wheels and we were now heading towards the fifth and the last geth in the compound. The Mako's engine roared as the vehicle slammed into the poor trooper and crushed it against the wall of one of the buildings. Shepard stopped the Mako there, leaving the geth trooper stuck between the wall and the vehicle. It sparked as it tried to claw it's way out of the tight situation it found itself in before it sparked several times and stopped moving.

"Well, this solves one problem," she remarks and looks at the gate. "the gate's closed and it doesn't look like it will open itself," she continues with a frown and then looks at us. "Alright, climb out and get your weapons ready," she barks the order and we quickly climb out.

Wrex looks to be incredibly relieved to be outside, not that I blame him since I'm equally relieved to be outside. I notice that my legs are actually shaking and I have trouble standing normally. I look at Tali and see that she has the same problem. I'm taking a guess and blame the bouncy Mako. The only one who doesn't seem to have any problems is Shepard.

She quickly beckons us to follow her and we move towards the building where the gate switch is. I take the rifle from my back and fall in line behind Shepard, sending uneasy glances around, just in case I missed a geth or two.

"Shepard is an... interesting driver," Tali remarks quietly as she walked beside me.

I snort at that. "More like batshit crazy," I reply quietly, hoping Shepard won't hear me. "she nearly drove us into a river of lava because she wasn't watching the damn road!"

"You're not exactly making me less worried," she deadpanned.

"Well, I'm not worried. I'm _terrified_. If I knew how to operate the damn thing I'd ask the Commander to drive," I say, shooting a glance at Shepard. This was the most terrifying ride I ever had, and that surely beats that crazy ride I had with one of my bosses back at home.

"Quiet down," Shepard orders as we reach the door of the building. We quickly do so and as quietly as we can, we step into the building. I already knew that there will be a single geth in there, so I shoulder my rifle and hold my finger on the trigger, just in case.

I take note of the weapons Shepard carries and I just can't decide what is Shepard's class, though I do have my suspicions. She has a pistol, an assault rifle and right now she's carrying her shotgun. I can assume she's a soldier, or maybe sentinel or a vanguard but then again, nothing is restricted her by game mechanics. She could be anything for all I know!

Thankfully I quickly get the answer. As soon as the geth enters our line of sight and before I could do anything, Shepard whips out her free arm and was suddenly surrounded by writhing blue wisps of smoke... or whatever it was. It was definitely cool though.

A split second later the geth was covered by the same blue smoke-thing and floated up into the air. Without any delays Shepard raises her shotgun and fires once into the geth's chest. The force of the shot sent the geth flying further up into the air, where it bumps into the ceiling and then crashes to the floor.

Well, this definitely answers my question. She a biotic so I think I'd go with vanguard, since she uses a shotgun. I have to say that these biotics look damn awesome! Too bad I can't be a biotic so I think I'm qualified for the soldier class, for now. Maybe I'll learn some impressive tech skills and become a tech expert or something. Then again, I'm not really interested in tech other than knowing how to overload stuff.

Shepard casually steps over the dead geth and presses a few buttons on the console. Soon after a loud humming noise fills the room as the machinery comes to life. We look outside and see the gate opening, slowly sliding down and clearing the path for us. "Good, the gate's open. Back to the Mako!"

"That was quick," Wrex mutters quietly to himself and I simply have to agree with him. We just got out and now we have to get back into the hellish thing. We shuffle out of the building and job over to the Mako and climb into the cramped vehicle with some annoyance.

"Alex, take the cannon," Shepard barks and with a disgruntled sigh I move over to the gunner seat. Aiming with the damn thing is freaking hard and if it didn't have these nifty movement stabilizers, it would be absolutely impossible. With the way the Mako bounced around on the uneven road, I found myself having a hard time trying to stop my hands from shaking. It made me think that the Mako was build for roads, not combat operations on some random planets.

And so we start moving again, leaving the camp-thing behind us. Hm, if I remember it correctly, there should be more armatures here. We move past the hill, or more accurately jump over it much to my dismay and I spot a glowing blue light in the distance. Hmm, I have to wonder why the geth have flashlight heads. Can't they dim it a bit or something? I mean, this really fucked up their chances of catching us by surprise. I'm seeing this armature from a mile away!

"Armatures right ahead," I announce and try, the keyword being try, to zoom in and aim at the armature. Fuck! The crosshairs keep bouncing up and down, making it _impossible_ to nail it properly. It wasn't that bad without the zoom but now it was just horrible! "Uh, Commander, can you slow down a bit? It's pretty hard to shoot it when we're bouncing up and down like a freaky rubber ball," I politely ask.

"Sure," she complies, moving us out of the way, allowing a plasma bolt to fly by us. Instead of slowing down Shepard just slammed the breaks, causing us to abruptly stop. This threw me forward with the momentum and if it wasn't for the seat belt I would probably be all over the cannon console right now.

"Ugh, thanks," I cringe out and get back to aiming the cannon. A couple of machinegun rounds slam against our shields but they barely do anything to our shields. A couple of cannon rounds later and we face one armature less.

* * *

><p>We near the exit of the second tunnel, which gave us a small break for shooting. The geth colossus we downed before entering the tunnel was a lot more imposing in real life than it was in the game. It was... big and unfortunately it could take a huge amount of damage before we could bring it down. It took out a third of our shields before we managed to blow it to pieces, which was quite intimidating. The colossus was definitely not something I'd want to fight without the Mako.<p>

Oh, and Wrex was complaining that he was bored. Well, I think I'd be bored too if all I was doing was sit in the back, listening to the cannon.

We finally exit the tunnel and Shepard crashes the Mako through the makeshift barricade the geth constructed, including the two unfortunate geth troopers that we're behind that particular barricade. Damn, Shepard _loves_ crashing the Mako through things. I quickly swivel the cannon around and aim at the remaining geth. One cannon shot swallowed a pair while the other three we're quickly peppered with holes, courtesy of the machinegun.

Shepard revved the engine again and we continue on. Hm, yeah, we're going to leave the Mako soon if I recall. Just as I finish that thought Shepard stops us in front of a pile of rocks that blocked our way. Shepard looks around thoughtfully for several seconds. "Looks like it's the end of the road for us," I comment.

She frowns thoughtfully. "Maybe I can squeeze the Mako through..." she mutters to herself and my eyes widen at that idea.

"No no!" I quickly interrupt before she could come up with anymore more crazy. I refuse to be in the Mako while she tries to flip it over the rocks, or something equally worse. I'm close enough to trowing up as it is! "we almost reached the dig site anyway, we can walk on foot," I suggest.

She frowned for several seconds and then sighed in defeat. "Well, I don't see any other way to go on. Okay, everyone out! Keep your guard up. From what we've seen so far, this place is crawling with geth," she warned. As one, we crawl out of the Mako and prepare our weapons once again, though for some reason I feel that something is missing. "Is everyone ready?" Shepard asks once we're outside.

And then I realize what's missing. "Fuck! I forgot my helmet on the Normandy!" I curse, looking into the Mako again. No, it's not in the Mako, I just didn't take the damn thing with me in the first place.

Shepard 'tsk'd in disapproval. "You should know better than that," she sighed. Wait a second. I see that neither Wrex or Shepard wear their helmets, something which Shepard seemingly notices. "well, as long as you keep your head down, you should be fine."

Well, I don't really mind. Wearing a helmet seemed a bit... stuffy for me. I haven't wore a helmet before other than those couple of times on a motorcycle. It felt quite stuffy and hot back then. Then again, time might have improved helmet technology. Well, next time I'll make sure to get my helmet. "Well, what are we waiting for?" I finally say.

Shepard gives a small nod and moves out, stepping beyond the rocks and into enemy territory, followed by Wrex and Tali. With a single deep breath I follow them. I quickly catch up and fall in line right by Wrex. "Helmets are overrated," he says in his usual low tone. "won't save you once your shields are down."

"Yep, I know. It would still make me feel better if I had something to cover my head though," I remark when we get to the clearing filled with conveniently placed rocks. Huh, so this is how we're going to play this, eh? If this is not a hint that we're going to fight now, I don't know what this is.

"Wimp," Wrex snorts, though I don't really get the usual annoyance or hostily in his voice. Before I could say anything back I catch sight of several geth troopers coming into the clearing from the opposite side.

"Hostiles!" Shepard yelled and ran over to the closest rock, quickly followed by Tali. Wrex wordlessly took off to a vacant rock in a surprising burst of speed. For someone this big, he's damn fast! Well, I'm not going to stay here and soak bullets. I run after Wrex and join him behind the big, conveniently waist-high rock.

Okay, let's get this show on the road. It's time to shoot some geth! Okay, I'm quite nervous right now and I think I should start actually shooting them. I shoulder my rifle and rise up from my cover. I quickly pick a target, which happened to be a red geth trooper and pull the trigger in short bursts. The first burst depleted it's shields and the second and third finished it off.

Awesome! One killed! Unfortunately, killing that geth had the unfortunate side effect of getting everyone's attention. I quickly duck down when all of a sudden I find out rock under heavy fire. Wrex stood up, his body covered in a biotic field and fired off a few shots. I take my chance at that moment to peek out and see one unfortunate geth flash in blue before it was sent flying at high velocity.

Okay, let's do something different. I open up my omni-tool and load up an Overload. Time to test my new omni-tool! Since the geth are synthetics, my Overload should do more than just overload their shields. I stand up again and much to my surprise I see only one geth remaining. Well, it doesn't really matter to me. I unleash the hopefully-terrifying power of my Overload and... holy shit! The geth is shrouded by a large amount of sparks and then just stands there, jerks around in spasms as electricity courses around it's body. Before I can do anything else, a shot from Shepard catches it in the head and with a burst of circuits and white 'blood' it falls to the ground.

I glance around and don't see anymore geth. Oh! here's the cue to say something entirely appropriate! "All clear," I announce. Hah! It feels quite awesome to say it. Wow, now that I think about all the badass things I can say, I feel quite giddy.

"It's not over yet," Shepard says grimly and jogs over past the geth corpses. Hm, can I even call them corpses? Do geth really die when their platform is destroyed or do they just return back to their main hub, or whatever it was that they use? Wow, so many questions and no one to answer them. Now I can't wait until I meet Legion in two years.

We move through the tight passage and come out to a large open area and on the other side I see a small tower. Hey, I remember this place quite vividly! I squint at the tower and see the silhouette of the geth there. "Commander, there's a sniper on the tower there," I shout out as we run to the closest cover, which happened to be more rocks. On the ground below us I could already see the dozen or so geth that were milling about. I look at the tower again and see the light that came from the sniper's head, which means he was facing us now. "I think he saw us," Exactly at that moment a very high pitched noise whistles right above my head, just as I crouch behind the rock with Tali. "_Yep_, he saw us."

Apparently the sniper rifle noise alerted everyone to our presence and once again, utter chaos erupted. Oh, shit, this is insane! Okay, breathe in, breathe out, calm yourself down. I shoulder my rifle again and rise up from cover. Well, I won't have any problems picking a target, since there are around five geth in front of me. I pick the closest one that was slowly climbing towards us and shower him with bullets. His shields collapse within a second and a moment later he falls down with a spray of white blood. Several rounds impact my shields and I quickly go back to cover. Fuck, I have no HUD or anything so I have to use the long method. I open my omni-tool to check my shield integrity and I'm glad to see that they are on 40%. Okay... recharge... recharge... done!

I come out of cover again and gladly see less geth this time. My eyes are instantly drawn towards the bright light sailing towards Shepard and Wrex. I'm about to shout out a warning but I don't really need to. Shepard and Wrex quickly duck down and the missile passes over their heads and hits the rock wall behind them, showering us all with small rocks.

I look back at the rocket trooper and start shooting at him. As soon as his shields collapsed there was a blue flash around him and the geth started floating up, courtesy of Wrex or Shepard, I don't know.

Okay... we need to advance. This place is a bit tight for us. Damn, I'm about to do something insane. Without wasting any time thinking, or using my brain, I jump over the rock and sprint over to the next rock down the hill. I can both see and hear the bullets flying around me but that only makes me run faster. As soon as I was close enough I dropped down and slid across the ground into safety behind the rock. Wow, holy shit, this was _intense!_

Luckily, since pretty much all the remaining geth concentrated on me while I ran to the rock, this gave Shepard and the other plenty of opportunity to return fire. When I peeked out from behind the rock I saw that there was less than a handful of geth remaining, not including the sniper in the damn rower. Okay... now that I'm closer, I think I can get the damn sniper. I quickly prepare an Overload and jump out of cover and aim at one of the geth closer to me.

I don't bother shooting it down though. Instead I aim at the tower and spray bullets like a blind idiot. I don't hit the sniper, but I made him take cover, which was just as good for the team. I turn back to the geth I just overloaded just in time to see it blasted back by a shotgun shot from Tali. Okay, that was a bit surprising, I have to admit. I wasn't expecting that. Okay, different target!

I quickly scan the area and see... oh, look at that! It's that energy cover thing the geth deploy. Wow, I wonder how it works? Is it really solid or is it just like kinetic barriers, just stops bullets? A bullet whistles right by my ear and I quickly duck again with a yelp. Holy crap, okay, no more musing during a firefight!

I look at the others to see how they're doing. Tali switched her shotgun for her pistol, probably for the better range. Wrex flashed blue with the light of biotics again, but I didn't see what he did exactly and Shepard was shooting at the sniper, judging by the angle. I think it's my turn to shoot at something. I rise up from cover and aim at the tower and join Shepard. The geth sniper doesnt really have where to hide there and eventually one shot catches it in the head, though I'm not really sure who that shot belonged to.

And as suddenly as it started, just as suddenly it was now all quiet. No more shots were fired, no more loud noises. It was just... quiet. We all slowly come out of our cover and scan the area slowly, looking for something to shoot. "Perimeter secured," Wrex announced and I allowed myself to relax somewhat.

Without stopping to rest we move up the hill and thankfully find it geth-free. I'm about to go on when I feel a sharp pain on the back of my head. Ow! What the fuck? I turn around and see... Shepard? Did she just slapped on the back of my head? "That was stupid. Don't do it again," she says simply and walks off. What did I do? Was it... ah, it's probably for my mad rush to the next cover thing...

Wow, I... wasn't expecting her to react this way. I rub my sore head and look at her as she walked away. Damn, she hits hard. Then again, it was a bit of a stupid move. I just pulled off a Jenkins Rush and got out alive, so I think I should get at least _some _credit.

Well, she doesn't look to be that mad at me. I guess she thinks that slap would suffice and she's kinda right. She slaps _hard!_ I'm just glad that no one's firing at me for now. This was epically intense! My heart is still beating madly and I'm quite a bit out of breath here. With a relieved sigh I quickly follow the others. Tali was nice enough to lag behind and wait for me. How nice of her.

We're slowly approaching this refinery thing and... oh shit. We're going to fight that armature and those hoppers now. On foot! Okay, this was going to be bad. Really bad. The armatures are not that impressive when we were in the Mako, but now? Shit, in the game it took a shitload of fire to just collapse it's shields, not to mention the random geth and hoppers that are with it! Damn, this is going to be... problematic. Sadly, I can't actually do anything about it, since we absolutely have to kill it in order to continue. The bloody thing sits right at the entrance to the ruin. Well, what can I say? Hope for the best and prepare to worst, I guess.

Then again, I've got Shepard, Wrex and Tali with me and they are galactic-level badasses! This should be a peace of cake, right?

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><p><strong>Yep, intense indeed! Next chapter will see the end of the mission and of course, the horror of all infatry, the abominable armature!<strong>** Yeah, fun times are ahead! I already have something... amusing for the next chapter, so sit tight and wait for it!**

**Yeah, anyway, thanks for all the support! I have an ungodly amount of hits so far and like... over 70 reviews! This is insane for me! So thanks a lot! I'm glad you loved the story so far! Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think. If you spotted something... I don't know, wrong or some flaw? Feel free to point it out! So yeah, thanks again, I'm gald you enjoyed reading this.**

**Until next time. Delvaro out.**


	20. Chapter 20

**I'm back again. A new chapter is done so... here you go! Since I have nothing to say now, go ahead and read it. Enjoy!**

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><p>Okay, this is going to be intense. No, not intense. This was going to be freaking insane! We're about to take on an armature on foot! Everyone doesn't seem to be very concerned but then again, I'm the only one who knows that we're going to face an armature. Ugh, not to mention the annoying hoppers and troopers that are going to be there. I remember getting killed by the bloody hoppers more than once.<p>

We slowly approach the refinery and I'm really getting freaked out here. Any minute now. We finally walk up to those two barricades and there it is. It's still folded on itself and I quickly look up, just in time to see one geth hopper crawl on the underside of the catwalk, like a freaky, demented version of spiderman.

With a mechanic... roar, I guess, the armature unfolds itself and starts loading it's cannon. Several geth troopers run out from behind the refinery and quickly start shooting at us. "Shit!" Shepard yelps and quickly jumps behind one of those crates with Tali while I quickly move with Wrex to the other one. The shiny blue ball of death passes between the two crates and explodes somewhere behind us.

Okay, how did I deal with this in the game? Attacking the armature now would be pointless because the troopers and hoppers would finish us off, so killing them first would be better since then we can concentrate on the armature without any interruptions.

I suddenly find myself nearly falling when the crate we were hiding behind is violently pushed. Shit! Figures, the crate is _not_ indestructible! Taking our time here simply won't work. Okay, time to deal with this problem.

I move out from the left side of the crate while Wrex takes the right one. I quickly find one of the troopers, who was busy trying to shoot Shepard. He's pretty close so I don't bother shooting at bursts. The fully automatic fire makes quick work of it's shields and within seconds the geth took too much damage and dropped down, over a dozen holes littering it's torso.

Okay, good, now to the next one. Before I could pick my next target something lands on the refinery's wall. I guess the target was picked for me. I line up the shot but before I could pull the trigger the hopper jumped off in breakneck speed, too fast for me to properly follow. Sadly, I have no opportunity to track down the bugger because suddenly the armature's machinegun rounds start flying around me, forcing me back to cover.

Wrex flashes blue and makes an uppercut-like movement, as if he's pushing something up. Since nothing shoots at me now I decide to see what's going on. I see three extra geth corpses, including one hopper. I spot something above me and can only gape when I see a geth sailing up and up, glowing blue all the while and when the blue glow vanishes, it simply falls down. It crashes to the ground loudly and doesn't get up. Since I don't see anymore troopers I start shooting at the armature. This has the unfortunate side effect of getting it's attention and I'm force back to cover again.

"Wrex, Alex! Flank it!" Shepard yells over from the other side.

I exchange a glance with Wrex and we both start running. We dash over to the big refinery... building, which is gladly out of the armature's sight. A few rounds fly around us and one even hits my shields but we reach it unharmed. We quickly move around the building.

Halfway there something abruptly lands in front of me. I yelp out in shock as the hoppers red eye glows at me ominously. I act before I think. I kick it in the head with all my strength. Considering I was running at the moment, my kick carried quite a bit of momentum behind it. My boot solidly connected with the geth's head, flipping it on it's back. Before the geth could do anything else I spray it with fully automatic fire until it stops moving. Goddammit, I think I fractured a toe! Those things had hard heads. Wrex runs past me, sending a short glance at the dead hopper as he passed by, and without stopping to wait continues to our destination.

I run after him with a slight limp and manage to catch up to him just as we cleared the building. This looks good so far. Right now we're behind the armature and from what I remember, the thing is slow as hell so we have plenty of time to shoot it before it manages to turn around, if it actually manages to do that.

We open fire at the same time. I keep holding the trigger until my rifle overheats. I don't bother to go into cover since apparently, we confused the hell out of the geth. It tries to turn around to face us but Shepard draws it's attention back to her. My rifle finally cools down and we repeat the process.

Finally, after who knows how many bullets we fired, the armature's shields finally collapsed and we started actually doing some damage. "Wrex!" Shepard shouts, catching our attention. She looks at Wrex meaningfully and flares her biotics. Wrex gives he a silent nod and does the same.

Wait... what are they doing? Are they... holy shit. The armature is enveloped by the combined biotics and lifted up into the air. It keeps going higher and higher. Three meters, then five and when it reaches around ten meters, the armature slowly turns upside down and then shoots down with incredible velocity.

With a loud crushing noise, accompanied by the sound of breaking metal, the armature is slammed into the ground, sending up a cloud of dirt and dust. I waited for the dust to clear with baited breath and when it did, I was relieved to see the broken and crushed armature.

Holy shit! I... I can't believe what I've just seen. Wrex and Shepard just... power bombed an armature! I'm speechless. Shepard walks out from behind her crate with Tali and holsters her rifle, wiping some sweat from her brow. "Good job," she compliments Wrex.

"It didn't stand a chance," he sends back with a nod.

"That... was fucking _awesome!_" I exclaim loudly, still staring at the crushed armature. Damn, biotics were _a lot_ more versatile than they were in the games! Wow, I'm kinda depressed that I can't be a biotic.

"Thanks," Shepard replies with a smirk. "the thing soaked bullets like a sponge," she says, sending an annoyed glance at the armature.

"I warned you about their shields. The only thing that has tougher shields is the colossus," Tali says. Shit, I remember trying to kill a colossus in the game without the Mako, you don't have to tell me about it.

"Alright, let's move out," Shepard says and we go on with our path. We climb up the ramp and stop in front of the door. Shepard presses the console and the door opens with a hiss, letting out a gust of stale, dusty air into our faces.

I stare into the depths of the tunnel for several seconds before speaking. "Looks ominous," I remark. It's pretty dark down there...

"Are you scared?" Wrex asks and I snort at that.

"Nope. Dark, underground caverns is simply not my thing," I explain. There are quite a lot of geth down there too.

"Let's move," Shepard interrupts and marches into the tunnel. With a shrug I follow her wordlessly along with the rest of the team.

The tunnel is a lot longer than I remember it. It takes us nearly three or five minutes to finally reach the end of it. Considering we were constantly going down as we went along, I have to guess were pretty far underground by now. I don't get it, what is it about ancient aliens and underground caverns? Couldn't they build it above ground and not susceptible to getting berried underground?

Hm, there should be geth around here right about now. Oh, there we go! Shepard quickly draws her pistol and shouts out a warning. I stop the geth trooper standing in front of the tunnel exit but before I could even aim, Wrex flashes blue and as if it was shot out of a cannon, the geth is sent flying away into the rock wall a good distance away.

Dammit Wrex, at least let me shoot! Even Shepard looks slightly annoyed by that! It's not the end though. Shots impact the ceiling of the round tunnel as the geth shoot at us from somewhere below us. We pile out of the tunnel and carefully approach the catwalk railings. I prepare an Overload and do the same. I see a pair of geth, slowly climbing the catwalks over to us. I pick one and release the overload. The geth freezes when a shower of sparks erupt from it, causing it to spasm erratically and it's quickly put out of it's misery when the others gun it down. I fire a few shots at the second geth but a clean headshot from Tali drops it to the floor.

Huh, I send a glance at the quarian and see that she switched her shotgun for her pistol. I have to admit that it was pretty damn accurate. Hm, I need to train my shooting skills more. Scoring headshots like this would make firefights easier.

Okay, nothing is firing at us so this means there are no more geth around, for now at least. We go down the stairs and carefully approach the elevator. "This place is huge," Tali mutters as she looks down from where she stands by the railing.

"The protheans sure loved to build big things," I remark and walk over to Tali. I look down as well and... yeah, let's _not_ look down. I can barely see the bottom from here! I'm not really afraid of heights, but I do have a small fear of falling from great heights.

The elevator doors open, finally, and we step in. I'm preparing to a long ride down but much to my surprise the elevator is actually relatively fast! Still, considering how much we needed to go down, it still took a bit of time.

The elevator stops with a jerk and we step out. We almost got to Liara! We just have to cross this catwalk and reach the elevator and we finally get to our destination. However as soon as as we step out of the elevator a trio of mechanic things rise up from below.

"Drones!" Tali shouts in warning and reminds me what those things were. We all aim our weapons at them and start shooting. Sadly, it was a bit anticlimactic. The drones manages to shoot a couple of times but two of them explode nearly instantly under our combined fire and the third one simply falls down lifelessly after it erupted in a shower of sparks, probably from Tali's overload.

We stand there, staring at the air where the drones were for several seconds. I can guess that we all look a bit confused. I honestly wasn't expecting it to end so abruptly. With a collective shrug, we simply decide to move on.

I can't help but look around as we walk over to the second elevator. This is the first time I'm seeing a prothean construct, so I guess I might as well take the chance. The first thing that I can say is 'Big'. The second is bland. It just seems so... lifeless here. Just white walls, no other features whatsoever. Maybe there were features around 50,000 years ago, but right now it's just bland.

"Sterile white. Protheans sure build things homey," Wrex remarks. Apparently I wasn't the only one taking a look around. I wordlessly agree with him. I have to guess that this was a facility of some sorts, not actually a place that anyone lived in. I would go insane from living in such a place. While the Citadel wasn't exactly colorful either, it had a lot of things to make sure it wasn't bland and boring.

We climb into the elevator and we begin out descent. The elevator ride starts normally but all of a sudden there is a terrible metallic screech and sparks start shooting out from the rails, and the elevator slowly comes to a halt. Everyone seems surprised by this, other than me since I was expecting it, but they quickly gather themselves. The door slides open for us and Shepard looks down. "We can jump down," she says simply before she did exactly that.

I look down and see that it's not that high and do the same as Shepard. I land with a grunt and quickly move out of the way for the others. The next one to jump is Wrex, who I swear caused a miniature earthquake when he landed. The floor shook when he landed and I think I even bounced an inch. Tali quickly follows, though she lands a lot more softly than me or Wrex. Huh, I wonder how we would've got down if the elevator slowed down sooner? That would be hilarious. The mission failed because we got stuck in an elevator. How surreal is that?

We climb down the collapsed catwalk and finally reach the edge. I can see the glow from the barrier Liara is behind and I gotta say that I'm a bit excited. We jump down from there too and I turn around and finally spot Liara. "Uh... hello? Could somebody help me? Please?" she pleads. We exchange glances with Shepard, who takes the lead and steps up to the barrier. "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped. I need help!"

"Are you Dr. T'Soni?" Shepard asks.

"I am," she replies "thank the Goddess, I did not think anyone would come looking for me," she said with evident relief. "Listen, this thing I am in is a prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it. Alright?"

Shepard inspected the barrier. "How'd you end up in there? I see no way to remove it."

"I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here. Can you believe that? Geth! Beyond the veil!" she exclaimed. Yes Liara, we can believe it. We just fought through a small army of geth to get here. "I activated the tower's defenses. I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out. When I turned it on, I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped here. You must get me out, please," she continued, looking at us pleadingly.

Shepard raised a hand in a calming gesture. "Don't worry, we'll find someway to get you out of this," she promises the trapped scientist.

Liara looks thoughtful for a few seconds. "There is a control in here that should deactivate this thing but you'll have to find a way past the barrier curtain," she says with a frown. "That's the problem. The defenses cannot be shut down from the outside. I don't know how you'll get in here."

"We'll find a way," Shepard calms her down. She gives us a look and wordlessly we start to move.

"Be careful," Liara warns. "there is a krogan with the geth. They've been trying to get past the barrier."

"Thanks for the heads up," I say before we move out of her line of sight.

Okay, this should be simple enough. We quickly go down the catwalk but luckily I know where to look. Down below us I spot the first enemy. "Geth!" I yell out as I pull out my rifle. This instantly causes everyone to tense and ready their weapons.

Okay, I don't know how many of them are here but I doubt they have enough to deal with us. I aim at the closest geth and shoot at it in short bursts. Sadly, the geth is a bit far from me so almost half of the shots miss. I duck behind the railing as rounds start flying over my head. As soon as they stop I stand up and start shooting the geth again. After several bursts if finally goes down and I follow the others, who were already half-way down.

When I catch up to them we're already standing behind the mining laser. One of the geth had the bright idea of openly walking towards us, blindly firing and ignoring everything that could be used as cover. I decide to greet him with a hail of bullets. Just as I pull the trigger the geth is hit with an Overload, leaving him defenseless against my assault. How lovely, thanks Tali!

The rest of the geth simply don't stand a chance against us. Between Wrex and Shepard's biotics and the Overloads Tali and I were sending the geth could barely shoot at us. Within a minute we were the only ones standing.

Shepard looks around thoughtfully, probably searching for a path. This is a dead end so we need to find another way. Luckily, I know exactly what we need to do. Well, I guess I'll just have to point her to the right direction. "What's this?" I ask, pointing at the large machine.

"That's a... mining laser," she finishes with a small smirk as she inspects it. "I have an idea," she finally says.

"Oh?" I say with a smirk.

"We need to activate this thing. We'll create a passage right through the wall over there," she points at the vacant wall right in front of the laser.

"Leave it to me," Tali says and walks over to the console. She fiddles with her omni-tool and the console for a short while before she steps away. "Done," she says, sounding very pleased with herself. Wow, that was fast! It barely took her twenty seconds! From the way Shepard is looking at her I can easily say that I'm not the only one impressed here.

"Good job," she remarks, walking over to he console. "Step back," she warns and activates the machine.

It loudly hums to life and without any warning whatsoever, shoots the brightest red beam I've ever seen, kicking up a large cloud of dust and dirt. It goes on for several seconds before just as abruptly it stopped. The dust settled down and I see a large, smoking hole in the ground. We carefully walk over to it and I see that the laser simply collapsed the floor... or the ceiling of a corridor that was beneath us.

We jump down and carefully move through the corridor until we reach the console at the end. "Looks like an elevator," Tali remarks as we look around the elevator shaft. Wow, I have to admit that it's one big elevator. I wonder why would they need one so huge.

Shepard presses a few buttons, looking unsure of herself as she does it. I kinda get the feeling that she doesn't have a clue about what she's doing here. Then again, she doesn't know how to read prothean so it's press the button and hope for the best. The floor jerks a bit and we start going up. Shepard looks immensely pleased with herself and I decide to keep silent about it.

Several seconds later the elevator comes to a stop and we see Liara, still suspended in mid-air. We walk over to her and apparently Liara heard us since I see her twist her head around in an attempt to look at us. "How... how did you get here? I didn't think there was a way past the barriers."

"We used the mining laser," was Shepard's simple reply.

"Of course. That makes sense," Liara agrees. "Please, get me out of here before more geth arrive. That button over there should shut this thing down."

Shepard walks over to the console and looks at it for several seconds before she pushed some button. A holographic display popped up and the bubble around Liara vanished, dropping her to the floor. She quickly stood up and stretched her limbs before she turned around to face us. I have no idea how long she was stuck like this so there's no wonder she wants to stretch like this.

"Any idea how we get out of here?" Wrex asks, looking around.

"There's an elevator in the center of the tower. It should takes us out of here. Come on!" she says and walks over to the elevator. Huh, I guess she's pretty eager to get out of here. Shepard quickly follows her and we follow Shepard. "Uh, I forgot to ask, but who are you?" Liara suddenly asks, looking a bit sheepish.

"I'm Commander Shepard. I'm a Spectre," Shepard introduced herself.

"Why would the Council send a Spectre after me? And I wasn't aware there was a human Spectre..."

"It's a new development," Shepard responds with a small smirk. "I'll give you the short version. The Spectre Saren Arterius betrayed the Council and allied himself with the geth and your mother."

Liara looks pretty much by what Shepard told her. "I... I cannot believe all this. Why would the geth come after me? You really think Benezia is involved?" she asks.

"Well, Saren is looking for the Conduit and you're a prothean expert. He probably thinks you can help him. It's possible that Benezia recommended you to begin with..." I stop there. I figure it should be enough for her to get the picture. I don't really want to cause her any emotional turmoil. I think it's a pretty rough surprise to suddenly find out that your mother works with a traitor.

"The Conduit? But I don't kno-" she's interrupted by the sudden violent shaking that comes out of nowhere. I somewhat expected it but I'm still a bit surprised by how violent it is. The structure around us groans ominously, and a distant rumble echoed through the place. We all look around worriedly, hoping the place is not going to collapse on our heads.

"What the hell was that?" Wrex voiced the question that was probably on everyone's mind.

Lira keeps looking around worriedly. I spot some dust falling from the ceiling, accompanied by small rocks. Fuck, this place is collapsing! "These ruins are unstable. That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event," Liara explained grimly. "We have to hurry. The whole place is caving in."

Shepard looks rather sheepish at that as she contacted the Normandy. "Joker! Get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal. On the double!" she ordered with urgency.

"_Aye aye, Commander. Secure and aweigh. ETA eight minutes."_

"Not much time," I mutter nervously.

"If I die in here, I'll kill him," Wrex says angrily. I don't even bother mentioning how impossible that is. Then again, this is Urdnot Wrex. He could probably pull it off.

Shepard quickly activates the elevator and we start going up. The whole place is shaking and I can practically hear the whole place falling apart. Some dust and rocks were falling from the ceiling, which only made me more nervous. Shit, we're gonna have to face that insane krogan too!

The elevator finally reaches the top and we're about to move but in comes the krogan with a trio of geth troopers, blocking our path. He walks in purposefully, glaring daggers at us and comes to halt several feet away. Shepard held up a hand to tell us not to shoot yet. The krogan looks at us for several seconds before he spoke. "Surrender. Or don't. That will be more fun."

Okay, I'm still in disbelief at his sheer insanity. I can't keep my mouth shut at this. "Dude, in case you haven't noticed, this whole place is collapsing and you want to fight _us_ here? Are you stupid _and_ suicidal?" I ask incredulously.

The krogan glares at me. Ooh, I pissed him off! Normally I will find it to be a bad thing, but right now I'm very happy. I've been shot at, bruised my toe on a geth's head and now we're in the middle of a collapsing ruin. I think I'm entitled to some pleasure, and pissing this guy off is definitely in the pleasure category. "Hand over the doctor. Now," he demands.

Liara takes a cautious step back. "Whatever it is you want, you're not getting it from me," she says with finality.

Some rubble falls down right behind me, scaring the crap out of me and causing me to jump away. Shit! That nearly landed on me! Shepard sends me a glance to see if I'm okay and then looks back at the krogan. "Is this really the time? Can't we do this outside?" she asks with a tired sigh.

The krogan barks out a short laugh. "The atmosphere is perfect for a life and death struggle!" he exclaims excitedly and then looks at the geth he brought with him. "Kill them. Spare the asari if you can. If not, doesn't matter," he finishes with an nonchalant shrug.

And with that, the battle starts. I quickly take the left side with Tali while Shepard and Wrex take the right. We quickly jump behind those tall things that surround the elevator. Shit, we're up against three geth and a krogan battlemaster. The geth arent a problem. The krogan is.

I shoulder my rifle and move out from my cover and pick see the red geth slowly walking towards me. Again, I could only wonder why it chose such a dumb tactic. I hold the trigger for full five seconds, which is more than enough to drop the geth's shields and then the geth itself. I quickly go back behind cover and inspect the scene. One of the geth runs up to Shepard, who was behind cover at the time, and attempts to shoot at her from point blank. Some rounds are fired but they are stopped by her shields. Shepard's fist glows blue and she punched the geth in the chest. There's a crushing sound and the geth is launched into the wall, it's chest caved in. Whoa, that was a nasty biotic punch! I quickly look at Liara and... where is Liara?

I turn around and see her right behind me, looking around nervously. Okay, I wasn't expecting this at all. I turn my attention back to the battle to see Tali hurriedly retreating, practically sprinting away. Before I can wonder why the answer comes sprinting at me, head lowered and ready to hit me. Oh shit!

I quickly turn to Liara, who didn't see the krogan yet since she was facing the other way and push her away and jump back just in time to avoid full impact. He still got me though, managing to land a glancing hit on my side as I was jumping away. Even though it was a glancing hit, it still hurt as hell and sent me off my feet and down to the floor. Shit, this will leave a bruise. I quickly get back up, ignoring the soreness in my shoulder and see the krogan towering over Liara, who was on the floor, probably because I pushed her. I'll apologize later. We have an insane krogan to deal with first.

I open fire at him, aiming from the hip since from this distance it won't matter. My attack is stopped by his shields but I accomplish what I wanted. I got his attention off Liara. He sharply turns around to me and runs at me. Oh... uh, I haven't thought this through, I guess. The battlemaster is now running at me and I don't have many options. He's too close to me for dodging, and he'll be on me within a second. I have only one thing to do.

As soon as he's close enough I slam the butt of my rifle into the side his face. Against all odds, it actually works. For a few seconds at least. By some sheer miracle I accidentally hit him in the eye, which caused him to flinch with a short grunt and stop his attack. Okay, he's still too fucking close! I slam the rifle into his face again and try to get away but after the second hit I guess he got tired of me. With an rage-filled growl he drew his arm back and back handed me across the chest.

I was never hit by a car before, but I guess that this is how it feels. The air in my lungs was violently blasted away and my vision dimmed for a second. I actually flew through the air and landed around two meters away, coughing violently. To make it worse, each time I drew a breathe I felt an incredibly sharp pain in my left side. Fuck, I think he broke a rib.

Still on the ground I look at the krogan, who looks absolutely pissed. The eye I hit was squinted and the other, still healthy eye was glaring murder at me. Oh shit, where's my rifle? I quickly look around and see it on the ground several meters away from me, too far. The krogan takes a step forward. Shit, what to do, what to do? I look for my pistol but it's not there. By the nine fucking hells, where the fuck is my pistol? I look for something else and my eyes fall on the knife strapped to my belt.

Since I was a bored and obscure kid when I was growing up, I wasted my free time on some random things. One of them was knife throwing and I believe that I was pretty good at it. If you can call throwing a kitchen knife into a cardboard box from a few meters away actual knife throwing that is. Google was a pretty good teacher too.

I draw out the knife and grab it by the blade, quickly recalling the technique I knew. I draw my arm back and with a grunt launch the knife. The knife spins through the air, quickly making it's way to the krogan, whose undamaged eye widened at what I was doing. The knife finally reached it's target...

And hit the krogan's nose handle-first and harmlessly bounces off.

Oh, _come on!_ This fucking _sucks! _

Oddly enough, it did slow down the krogan, since he just stared at me as if I was a complete idiot. I would've sent him an apologetic look if my life wasn't in danger. Goddammit, I _really_ need more training.

Luckily for me, the krogan doesn't even manage to make another step. Wrex comes barreling in, like a miniature freight train and slams into the unsuspecting krogan, lifting him off his feet and then slamming him again into the wall. Then, with one swift movement before the krogan could recover, he slammed his shotgun right under the krogan's jaw. The battlemasters eyes were wide as plates but before he could do anything, blink or even scream, Wrex pulled the trigger.

The top of the krogan's head explodes violently, sending chunks of brain and bones flying high into the air. Wrex turns around to look at me with this very pleased expression. My stomach flipped when whatever was sent into the air by the shot came raining down, slightly covering Wrex with blood. Oh, by the nine hells, Wrex! This is disgusting!

He looked down for some reason and kicked something. An object slid across the ground and stopped right in front of me. It was my pistol. Goddammit, how the fuck did I lose it? My best guess is probably when the krogan tackled me the first time.

Wrex walks over to me, grabs my hand and pulls me off the ground. I can't help but grunt when my side flares in pain. Yep, something is definitely broken. I quickly run around to collect my weapons, which were lying around the room. Damn, this is embarrassing.

"Come on! Move! Move!" Shepard shouts at us as more dust and debris were starting to fall from the ceiling. Shit, we don't have much time.

We quickly run for our lives, avoiding any rocks that fell from the ceiling, or trying to at least. One fist-sized rock fell on my shoulder but I easily shrug it off. The armor helped too. Each breath I took caused my side to flare in pain and because I was running for my life, I took a lot of deep breaths. I'm gritting my teeth, trying to ignore the pain in my side as I run after Shepard. I nearly stumble and fall when a particularly large rock falls right by my side, causing the catwalk to shake violently. My vision waters as the pain reaches very unhealthy levels but I just keep running. A bit of pain is much better than being crushed by tons of rocks.

Good, I can see the exit. We're almost there. Now I just need to run up this catwalk and we're safe. Shepard stops near the exit and waits for me to get out. She gives me a good push as I pass her by and enter the tunnel. Fuck, the noise is unbearable in here! The sound of collapsing stone and loud impacts echoes loudly through the tunnel and I try to ignore it but I just cant.

Finally, I see the daylight ahead and manage to put some more speed. Just a few more steps and this is over. As I finally step out into the daylight I hear a loud booming noise behind me and a large dust cloud shoots out of the tunnel. I run a few more steps to get to a safe distance and just collapse on the ramp and lean against the railing, clutching my side in pain. I look up and see the Normandy silently hovering above us. A great feeling of relief crashes down on me. We got out alive.

Shepard stops right beside me, leaning on her knees and panting. "You okay?" she asks with concern.

I groan as I try to stand up. "Cracked a rib, I think," I explain. "I'll be fine. Just... just give me a moment."

"Sure, no problem," she replies and leans on the railing right beside me to catch her breath.

Holy crap. We made it out alive! It kinda sucks that I'm injured, but at least it's nothing permanent! Slowly, I start to grin like an idiot. We completed out first mission! I would do a victory dance right now, or laugh, but unfortunately both were painful to do right now. Can't wait to get back to the Normandy, particularly the med-bay.

Oh, crap. Chakwas will _not_ be pleased.

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><p><strong>Yep, please she will not be. That's it folks. Therum is over! Liara is with the crew and once again injuries are present! Yeah, that was a fun chapter to write. I've been sitting on it for hours and those were some very fun hours, I have to admit. Anyway, next chapter will be the aftermath so... that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the action.<strong>

**Oh, on a side note: Those of you who play on the PC, feel free to add me on Origin to your list in case you're interested in playing an ME3 game with me. We'll kick some ass together if you want, because I sure as hell do! So, feel free to add me: Venorik128.  
><strong>

**On another small, relatvely unimportant side note: I know that most of you probably already either saw this theory, or heard about it,** **I still want to post it here, just so you could watch it, in case you havent. http : / / thatguywiththeglasses . com/bt/aj/topreasons/34653-me3-indoctrination-theory-a-dlc (without the spaces). Copy this link, the guy in there makes some very, very fine points. And the scary part? It actually makes sense! Creepy, huh? After you watch it and if this theory is true, it makes me think that Bioware are somewhat geniuses. Of course, it could also just be a case of crappy writing. So yeah, watch it if you're interested and those who haven't played the game yet or don't know about the endings, dont watch it because it contains a lot of spoilers. You have been warned.**

**So yeah, thanks for the reviews and all the favs and alerts! It really makes me happy to know that you love the story so far. Thanks for all the compliments too, I'm flattered as hell. So yeah, feel free to comment of the story and all that and thanks again. Until next time.**

**Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	21. Chapter 21

**inally! Wooh! It took me a while to finish this chapter but finally, here it is! I was partly busy with other, mundane things like playing ME3 with one of my fans (yay) and watching the Hunger Games movie (No, I havent read the books).** **So now when I finally finished this I feel a bit relieved. Well, I dont want to delay you here, so here you go. Enjoy the new chapter!**

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><p>"Unbelievable. Fistfighting a krogan? Of all the possible ways to injure yourself you pick the most painful one!" Chakwas sighs in exasperation.<p>

I don't even bother trying to defend myself. I decide to let Chakwas rant to herself. Whenever I did try to defend myself she started getting a bit... rough, so to avoid more pain I decided to shut up and sit it through.

Getting the armor off was surprisingly unpleasant but it had to be done. I couldn't help but wince when I saw the blue and slightly purple bruise that was on the left side of my rib cage. The diagnosis made me wince even more. Two injured ribs, one broken and one cracked.

Without the armor I was wearing, it probably would be worse. I could be dead, since the force was enough to put a decent dent into the armor itself. Without it my chest would've probably caved in or something. Yeah, I'm definitely repairing and keeping my armor. The thing saved my life after all. The treatment was surprisingly quick. She injected something into the injured area – which admittedly was a lot more painful than the injury itself – and applied some medical salve.

So right now she was checking me for other injuries, just in case and I had nothing to do other than stay silent and listen to her rant about how careless I am. At least this gives me incentive to avoid injury in the future. I really don't want to live through this ordeal again.

She shook her head in disappointment. "You'll live. Your armor took most of the damage for you. The medicine I gave you should mend your ribs and take care of the bruises in a couple of days but until then, you're forbidden from doing anything physically taxing," she instructed. Oh, this meant no missions. Shit, I hope I get better by next mission! "In fact, I suggest you shouldn't even move much until your injury is healed."

"Uh, can I at least do some light workout?" I ask and flinch when she sends me the most awful and terrifying 'Are you trying to defy my word?' look. "to keep myself in shape. Just light work out... nothing serious," I continue weakly.

She keeps the stare for several seconds before sighing again. "Fine, you can do light workout but if you come here complaining that your ribs are not healing, I will tie you to the bed and keep you locked in here until I consider you healthy enough," she threatens and I'm absolutely sure she will follow her threat.

I quickly nod. "Of course. I'll be careful and take things slow," I promise. If I get stuck here for who knows how long, I'll go insane. I'm the kind of guy who physically suffers when he's bored.

"I hope for your sake that you mean it," she curtly says. "Now off you go. Doubtless you have things to do." Okay, I can see when I'm being dismissed. I thank Chakwas and quickly take my leave. She probably have better things to do than lecture me on being cautious on missions.

Since I went to the med-bay as soon as we boarded the Normandy I probably missed the debriefing with the Council. Not that it bothered me in any way. I pretty much knew everything they're going to talk about. The Council is going to be pissed that the prothean ruin is... in ruins, then they're going to talk about Liara and then the Conduit and then Liara is going to do the 'embrace eternity' thing with Shepard. It's kinda nice knowing everything in advance. I don't have to worry about being left out or not knowing the whole thing.

I walk out of the infirmary and look around and see Kaidan at his usual spot. Huh, I guess the debriefing is already over. It went a lot quicker than I expected it to be. I wonder where's Liara... she hadn't passed through the infirmary to her room. Well, it doesn't really matter, I'll see her later anyway. Kaidan perks up when he spots me and beckons me over. With a shrug I do exactly that.

"When Shepard said you had a close encounter with a krogan, I expected you to look a lot worse," he remarks once I'm close enough.

"What can I say? I'm sturdier than I look," I shoot back with a smug smile. I might as well got something out of the relatively horrible experience. "Besides, it worked. He was about to run me over so I slammed my weapon into his face."

"And then he swatted you aside like a fly," Kaidan finishes for me. I open my mouth to defend myself but I can't find any words. There's no point in lying, since the whole ship probably knew by now and the krogan _did_ swat me away like I was nothing. In the end I decide on dejectedly hang my head in defeat. He chuckles at my misfortune. "Don't worry about it. You're lucky to come out in one piece."

"Yeah. Lucky. I got saved by Wrex and I think he won't let me forget the fact I needed to be saved in the first place," I sigh. Kaidan gives me an odd look and I think I know why. "he thinks I'm weak and not worth his time, and it's kinda pissing me off," I explain.

"Well, he's right. Most people are weaker than krogans, it's a fact." he says simply. Well, it's sort of true. Everyone knows that getting into close combat with a krogan was equivalent to suicide, unless you had biotics or something else that will give you an advantage.

"True, but he says I'm weak my human standards. I really hope I proved him wrong," I mutter.

"If you don't mind me asking... why do you care?"

Hm, that's a good question. "Well, I want to know more about the krogan, and it's kinda hard when the only thing I can get out of Wrex is a grunt or telling me I'm annoying him," I say with disappointment.

"You know you have the codex to learn things, right?" Kaidan says with a small smirk.

I snort at that. The codex proved to be useful but it lacked some information. Information that I could get only from the source. This was a priceless opportunity to learn things that the game never expanded upon! Important historic events, holidays, all kinds of traditions, all kinds of food and heck, even though I'm an atheist, even their religions interested me! It's a much bigger world out here than it was for me back in 2012. I have the chance to see and learn things people in my time only dreamed about learning. No way in hell I'm missing my chance.

"There are some thing the codex lacks. Wrex is hundreds years old! Just imagine all the stuff he's seen. He can tell me about Tuchanka or some krogan traditions, holidays and stuff like that. For some reason the codex lacks that kind of information."

Kaidan looks slightly thoughtful. "You've got a point there. It does look like a good learning opportunity," he agrees.

"Exactly. And I can't do a thing if he's not interested in talking with me," I say with an eager nod.

Kaidan opens his mouth to reply but for some reason stops and looks at something behind me. Huh, it appears that something interrupted us. I turn around and see Shepard and Liara. They seem to be in the middle of a conversation, though judging by the way Shepard was pointing at things, I can guess that she's giving her a quick tour. As they got closer to us Shepard finally notices us and drags Liara over to us.

"Alex! Good to see you standing," Shepard remarks, stopping in front of us.

"Yeah. Chakwas said I'm healthy enough to move around for a bit. I'll be a 100% in a couple of days or so," I give her the quick version.

"Ah, I wanted to thank you," Liara interrupts me, sounding a bit uncomfortable. Hm, I recall Liara being a bit socially awkward, so no wonder she sounds a bit awkward with herself. "If you hadn't pushed me out of the way..."

"Oh, no problem. I hope I didn't hurt you by accident. I kinda made you fall and all that..." I reply. Okay, I kinda suck at apologizing. I feel more awkward than Liara right now.

"Do not worry about it. The krogan would've done much worse had you not pushed me away," she admits and offers me a small smile.

I gladly return the smile. Now that we're not in a combat zone I can get a better look at her. It's quite weird. I've already seen many asari, and I've seen a lot of asari back in Chora's Den. They look so... human but at the same time, they don't. The only difference between us are the tentacle things on their heads and the skin color. Liara looks exactly as I remember her from the last time I've seen her. Only a lot better, since she's not made from pixels now. Now that I can get a better look, I have to say that she's quite handsome.

Okay, changing the topic now! I look at Shepard. "So we're giving the doctor a lift to the Citadel or something?" I ask, playing ignorant.

"Actually, no. Liara wants to find out why Benezia joined Saren and since we're chasing after Saren, we will bump into Benezia sooner or later. Liara decided to join us and I accepted," Shepard explains. I see that Kaidan is not surprised by the news, probably because he heard it in the debrieing. Okay, time to act surprised! I raise both eyebrows and look at Liara with some surprise.

"That's awesome!" I exclaim and look at Liara. "we could use the extra help. An extra biotic never hurts either. So... yeah, welcome aboard. Nice to have you with us."

"Yep," Shepard agrees, sounding pleased. "biotics are a good things to have," she remarks. Wow, good way to make me depressed. The only ones who are not biotics are me, Garrus and Tali.

"So what are we doing next?" I ask, deciding to change the subject.

"Right now I'm planning to drop by the Citadel to buy more supplies but we're going to make a few stops along the way," Shepard says. A few stops? I send her a questioning look and she sighs in exasperation. "I promised some people I'll check out a few things for them in some systems. Thankfully their on the way so I might as well get it over with."

Oh! Shepard is doing the side-quests. That's... rather surprising. I thought we were doing a mission of great importance. Still, it beats scanning planets and launching probes. I recall that joke from somewhere I can't remember that Shepard refused to answer a distress beacon because she mined for resources... that was somewhat funny. I wonder if she even has a reason to do them. "You promised someone to check some things out? Uhm, why?"

"Because I promised, because otherwise it would take the Alliance months to do it from them and because it's on the way. Oh, and for the experience, of course," Shepard states simply. Wait wait wait... experience? I simply stare at Shepard with the most flabbergasted expression I can muster. What the flying fuck? Holy shit, did Shepard just.. break the fourth wall? Shepard apparently notices the look I'm giving her and decides to elaborate. "You know, to get used to how each of you operate? How you fight, your talents and the likes? I just want to get some experience working with each of you."

I fight down the urge to sigh in relief. Okay, Shepard did _not_ break the fourth wall. I'm not really sure if it's a good thing or not. If she did break the fourth wall intentionally, it would've been awesome. Still, it's nice to know that Shepard wants to get used to working with us. It makes sense after all, pretty much all of us work differently. "Cool. Good to know," I finally say, giving her a small smirk.

"Okay. You did a good job today. You did some stupid things but it's nothing that some experience and instruction can't fix. Keep it up," Shepard says, and it took me several seconds to realize she's evaluating how I did on the mission. Sure, she said I did some stupid things but it still fills me with up with pride, enough to feel like I'm going to burst! I just got the Shepard Seal of Approval! Woohoo! "Go rest for now. I need to finish Liara's tour," she continued, sending a glance at the asari. With that the two left me and Kaidan.

"Hm, now our crew nearly has a member of every Council race," Kaidan remarks once Shepard and Liara are out of sight.

"True. Now all we need is a salarian..." I agree. "Maybe a volus and an elcor just to make things interesting," I add jokingly. Kaidan cracks a smile at that. Hm, now that I'm here I'm reminded of my deal with Kaidan. "Oh, about the omni-tool lessons. Gotta say that this baby packs quite a punch," I say, lifting my omni-tool hand. "works wonders on geth. I gotta say I'm curious what else I can do with it."

"That's good to know. How about later I'll find you and teach you some things?" Kaidan suggest and I eagerly nod at that.

"Cool. I've heard of all the awesome things you can do with an omni-tool. Overloading shields, hacking synthetics, combat drones, burning stuff, leeching on shields... stuff like that. Think you can teach me some of those?" I ask hopefully. Most of the stuff I mention are from the second game but I really hope that it was actually around before the second game. From what I hear only the thermal clips were explained in canon.

"Whoa, hold on a second. Some of the things you mentioned take months for experienced users to learn. I guess Tali can teach you a lot more than I can. I never learned how to make combat drones or anything as advanced, but I do know some pretty useful things," Kaidan explains, somewhat flustered. Oh, I think I overestimated his abilities. Kaidan was never an engineer or anything, so he probably knows only the combat-efficient stuff, which is exactly what I need.

"Sure, no problem. Pretty useful thing is exactly what I need," I assure him. "So I guess I'll see you later. I think I'll go find Tali and ask her about hacking things. She hacked that mining laser on Therum in like... 10 seconds, so I bet she's pretty good at it."

Kaidan looks some what impressed. "You do that."

With that I leave Kaidan to his kitchen duties. I'm still surprised that Kaidan is the Normandy's second cook, since he takes about half of the cook's responsibilities. The other half of his time he spends with the marines, doing whatever h was doing with them. Thinking of the marines reminded me that they were slightly... cool towards me. I was pretty much alienated from them. I can only guess that they were slightly pissed that a random guy like me suddenly gets to be on the ground team with Shepard. A couple of them still asked a bit about how it was like to work with Shepard, but at the time I haven't been on a mission with Shepard. I guess now I'll have something to tell them.

I turn around the corner to the elevator and bump into something red and big. My collision didn't move the object at all, and I pretty much bounced off. I take a step back and see Wrex staring at me. "Oh, Wrex," I greet him as the elevator doors opened. Wrex just nods and walks into the elevator and I quickly follow him inside. "Did I miss anything in the debriefing?" I ask, hoping to start a conversation.

"Not really. The asari joined us," he says shortly.

"I know. I met Shepard and Liara near the med-bay," I reply.

Apparently something caught his interest. He looked at me with more interest than ever and narrowed his eyes when he looked at my chest. "Nothing looks broken. I expected you to be in pieces, or crippled," he remarks.

I snort at that. I'm not _that_ soft. The bruise I have looks outright horrible but it's nothing serious, considering what we've been doing. "Just a scratch," I say, downplaying it quite a bit.

Wrex hummed in thought. "You're tougher than you look, I'll admit that. And you weren't that bad today either. In the end I have to wonder if you're stupid... or brave and I'll have to go with the former. Hand to hand against a krogan? That's reckless."

"It's not like I had a choice. He was already charging me. What do you want me to do, run away and get shot in the back? No way man, I'll shoot him in the face, or in this case, smash my rifle into his face," I say with a frown. I don't get it. Why everyone thinks that fighting that krogan was my idea? As if it was my plan all along!

"Brave. Most would run or try to get away. And that hit you threw was good. Right in the eye," Wrex says with a chuckle. "Always aim for the eyes."

"You don't need to tell me," I reply with a smirk. The eyes are always the weak spot! And without vision, how the fuck would they hit me then? Thus, always aim for the eyes. It's a rather gentle area. "So what? Did I prove that I'm not weak?" I ask with a smug smirk.

"Yeah," Wrex agrees and I feel myself swell with pride. "you proved that you're an idiot," Aww, Wrex, what a way to get my hopes up and then crush them. "but, you're not as weak as I thought."

Well, at least now he doesn't think I'm weak. Now he thinks I'm an idiot. "Gee, thanks," I deadpan. The elevator doors finally open and we exit into the garage. I immediately spot Garrus and Ashley doing their thing. Ashley's cleaning her rifle and Garrus is under the Mako, doing something I have no understanding of.

"Your welcome," Wrex says and walks off to his locker. Damn, what an ass. I'll prove him wrong the next time we're on a mission together.

Hm, I wonder where my things are. After I arrived to the the med-bay Chakwas called in one of the crewmen to bring my stuff down. I walk over to my locker, open it and immediately spot my armor. Oh, how nice of him. The guy who picked up my stuff lazily shoved my armor in the locker. I sigh and begin to arrange it properly so I'll have more space.

Five minutes later my armor is neatly placed in the locker and I have extra space from a rifle or two. Sadly, I see none of my weapons there. I look over at Ashley's table and notice that it's my rifle she's cleaning. Oh well, looks like I'm going to talk with Ashley.

"Hey Ash," I greet as I pick up my pistol and knife. If she's already cleaning my rifle, I might as well let her do it. Less work for me.

"Hey yourself," she says without looking at me, though I do see the large smirk on her face, as if she's fighting the urge to laugh. "I think I should take that knife away from you, so you wont do something _more_ stupid with it," she says and finally looks at me in amusement. "really? Throwing a knife at a krogan?"

I sigh heavily. Really, is everyone going to say something about it? "Again, like I said to everyone else, I didnt have much of a choice," I grind out. "I was unarmed and the only thing I had was the knife. He already broke one of my ribs and there was no way in hell I was getting close to him again."

"Hey, don't get angry at me. It your own damn fault," she says, still having that damn smirk. "you really should learn how to throw the knife first _before _throwing it. Did it really bounce off or was Shepard joking?" she asks with a grin.

Oh, screw you Ash! "You wouldn't be saying anything if that knife hit with the right end!" I say angrily.

"You're right, I wouldn't. But it didn't hit and that's why I'm going to keep on saying whatever I want," she says with a grin. Oh, by the nine hells, I already know she won't let me forget this little fuck up. "Still, you're pretty lucky to come out with some bruises," she remarks.

"I broke a rib," I deadpan.

"Exactly. Bruises," Ashely says. "Against a krogan, a broken rib is considered a bruise. So be happy about it."

"Bah! I have things to do," I groan out and Ashley finally laughs. "Leave the rifle on the table or put it in my locker once you're done with it," I add, shoving the knife and pistol into the locker. After that I angrily stomp away to see what Garrus is doing.

Once I was close enough to the Mako I could hear Garrus muttering something to himself in a rather angry manner. Huh, I wonder what got into him. "Garrus?" I carefully ask.

Instead of replying Garrus threw something out from beneath the Mako. I moved out of the way as it rolled by and after a couple of seconds of observation I realized what I was looking at: a severed geth head. Before I can say anything Garrus crawls out and looks at me angrily. "What in the spirits were you doing with this thing?" he asks, or demands, angrily.

Oh. Well, I don't really have an answer to that, so I simply say one word. "Shepard."

Garrus looks at me with expectation, waiting for me to go on. When it's apparent that I'm not going to say anything else he sighs and crawls back under the Mako. "Talk to me later, I have a lot of work to do. You wont believe how much crap got stuck in here," he says and to emphasize his point he threw out another object, this time a piece of a geth's arm.

"Okay..." I slowly say. "I'll talk to you later, I guess," I add and slowly walk away, just in case I'll have to dodge another geth piece. I have to wonder if it's even safe to have so many pieces of geth lying around here.

I guess that I have nothing to do now, other than giving Tali a visit. I should ask her about hacking stuff. Ooh, I'm already getting giddy thinking about all the things I could accomplish with some hacking skills. I quickly move towards engineering and easily find Tali on her work station, furiously typing something into the console.

"Hey Tali," I say to her and get her to turn around.

"Oh, Alex! I'm glad to see you're fine now. You didn't look so well when we were on the ground."

"I'm fine now. Chakwas easily took care of it," I calm her down. Ah Tali, always the nice one. She's the only one who didn't question my sanity or called me an idiot... yet. "Tali... can you I ask you a favor?" I ask, giving her a small grin.

She tilts her head slightly to the side as she looks at me intently. "Sure..." she slowly says. "what do you need?"

"Can you teach me how to hack things?" I ask with the widest grin I could manage.

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><p><strong>Wooh! Learning how to hack. How exciting... I guess. Yeah, this was another interactions chapter and I think the next chapter will be one too, but I'm not too sure yet. I'll see how it goes first. I'm leaving tomorrow to some relatives on a business and I'm not really sure if I'll get to write tomorrow or after tomorrow but if I'm lucky, you'll have a new chapter this weekend. If not, well, I have no idea since I'm participating in an English language contest next week and I feel like I gotta prepare a bit (I don't want 2nd place for the third year in a row).<strong>

**Again, my Origin username: Venorik128. Feel free to find me 'cause I really want to gave an epic game and it's less fun with random people. Feel free to add me.**

**So yeah, thanks for reading this story and special thanks to all those who loved it! I appreciate your reviews and I'm getting giddy every time someone compliments the story. So yeah, thanks again! Feel free to leave constructive criticism and tell me what you thought. You can just tell me your opinion on the chapter or the story as a whole. So yeah, do what you want. :P**

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	22. Chapter 22

**I'm back! Yo. So yeah, this chapter is not that long, for obvious reasons. It's also not very eventful, admittedly, but it had to be done. So here you go, you get a chapter with character interactions, mainly. So yeah, enjoy.**

**Something I really hadnt noticed last chapter... I just broke the 100K word milestone! Woohoo!** **And I have a 108 reviews! This is quite a lot for me, especially since this is my first SI story. So yeah, I love you peopel! Thanks for the support and I'm glad you enjoyed the story so far!**

**Oh, and a side note: A lot of people have been asking me about pairings so I guess it's time to adress the issue, since quite a lot of people asked about it. First of all, I have to say that I'm quite... unfamiliar with writing any pairings or whatever so I think there wont be pairing between the SI and another character for now, for two reason. ****First of all, from a logical POV, it's too soon. It's been less than a week since the journey started and most of the crew don't even know eachother that much. As for the second reason... well, I'll get to the shippings sooner or later, just let me figure out how to do it properly if you want it to be of high quality :P**

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><p>I have to say that it was a pretty good day. I sure learned a lot in such a short while. Tali gladly explained me everything I need to know in order to properly hack things. She even dumbed things down to a level I could easily understand, which sadly wasn't a lot. Thankfully, most, if not all of the hacking process was done by a program, which was already present on my omni-tool, since it was one of the standard programs on every military omni-tool.<p>

The program basically did all the complicated stuff for me and all I had to do was press a few buttons and direct the hacking process. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as it first sounded. Tali encrypted a datapad for me and showed me the basics of hacking. She then programmed the datapad to lock itself after every time it was unlocked, so I could try again. She made it look so incredibly simple that I started to think it was easy. Unfortunately, it took me about five minutes to unlock the damn thing, with two failures.

She did give me some good tips and more explanations about the art of hacking, as I called it. Experienced hackers didn't even need the hacking program and I noted that Tali said with quite a lot of pride that she hadn't used the program in a long time.

Sadly, hacking geth was very far away from me for now. Even Tali had problems with doing it, hence why she never even tried. A failed hacking attempt might backfire badly, along with a lot of time wasted for nothing and in a combat situation, wasting time was not something you did. Still, Tali said that I should be able to learn how to hack synthetics as soon as I get better at hacking, more accurately, as soon as I can work my way around a lock in less than 3 seconds, which was Tali's record so far. That admission left me quite impressed.

And so I spent over several hours hacking the same thing again and again until my head started hurting. While it was a very useful thing I was practicing here, it was still boring as hell. I think I nearly fell asleep more than once. On the other hand, these hours I spent hacking the damn thing proved to be well-placed, since now I could easily hack the datapad and dodge the simplistic firewall as it wasn't there. I'm still impressed that Tali constructed this admittedly-simple firewall in less than two minutes.

Thankfully, Kaidan arrived to save me from boredom. I have to admit that Kaidan was a pretty good teacher. First of all, he explained about what he was going to teach me, which happened to be Sabotage, what it did and when it was best to use. Then, much to my surprise, he simply transferred his own Sabotage program to my omni-tool and told me to have fun. This of course left me a bit confused but after Kaidan explained that it was just like using Overload I understood everything. Though he did warn me not to use it inside the ship, since no one appreciated things blowing up.

After that I practiced more hacking until I got bored again and then I went to sleep. Unfortunately, living on a ship screwed up my biological clock. Since there was no day or night in here and I could only rely on a clock, I went to sleep pretty early and woke up early in the 'morning'. Considering the ship operated on Citadel time, instead of Earth time, an hour lasted a 100 minutes and it took me ages to get used to that simple thing.

'Morning' brought several events. We finally arrived to one of the side-quest planets and Shepard took Ashley, Kaidan and Wrex with her, leaving the rest of us on the ship. Sadly this caused me to be extremely bored again and I decided to find Garrus or Tali to aimlessly waste my time with them. Unfortunately, Tali was still asleep and Garrus was nowhere to be found. From there I wandered around the ship, mostly looking for Garrus, until I stumbled upon a treasure...

XXXX

I sprint over to the catwalk's safety rail and duck behind it, allowing the missile and other various projectiles to pass over my head. I wait until they stop firing at me and stand up and spray fully automatic fire into the incoming horde of human zombies. Shit, I killed only four of them and the other five will jump on me any minute now. To make matters worse, my weapon was going to overheat any moment now, so that meant I was going to back to melee weapons.

I stop firing the crappy assault rifle for several seconds and fire at the smaller horde again in short bursts once my weapon cools down enough. Unfortunately, the small band of survivors on the other side starts firing again and force me back behind the cover, which dooms me because the undead soon swarm me. I try to push them back, slamming my weapon into their heads and kicking them away but all my hopes are crushed when a grenade lands right by my feet. I don't need to turn around to see where it came from. I already know, and it's not making my mood any better. The grenade explodes in a shower of red blood and an anguished scream.

"Garrus! You... _ass!_" I scream angrily as my side of the screen gives me a blood 'you are dead' message.

"What?" he replies in defense. "I thought you will move away!"

Yeah, he expected me to move. The asshole knew I was too busy to move! "You did it on purpose!" I growl at him as my character finally respawns again with the measly 15% HP. Garrus' character lazily sits on a high crate, out of sight and out of danger, sniping down the relatively dangerous enemies with his C-sec issue sniper rifle.

I was incredibly surprised to find lounge-like room in the crew quarters. After some investigating I found out that it wasn't there at first and the Normandy simply had no place for the crew to relax or spend time at. Thus the makeshift lounge was created. At first it was just a particularly large room but they moved out all the unnecessary stuff and placed there a couple of couches, an impressively huge TV screen and much to my shock, a game console.

More to my surprise, I found Garrus sitting on the couch and playing a game. How could I pass such an opportunity? The game was quite… interesting to say the least. I don't really know the plot, but I got the gist of it. Citadel is overrun with a zombie virus and you play as the survivors trying to get out. Pretty simple in my opinion. I never really played much survival-horror games, but I played at least some zombie-survival games, like Dead Rising, Dead Island and Left 4 Dead that one time. And this game... reminded me of all of them, and even more.

And what a game it is. As a gamer, I always loved games that gave me freedom, good story and basic realism. Yes, I was looking for realism in a zombie game, which confused me quite a bit. Of course, I wasn't looking for hardcore realism, just the kind that says that a shot in the head causes more damage than a shot to the leg, or that getting hit in the arm so many times should fucking cripple you by now. This game had plenty of realism. Things broke and got damaged when you shot or hit it enough times, damage reduced stats and you could create and modify your own equipment out of whatever stuff you could find.

I particularly love the krogan crest helmet I got from a relatively terrifying boss battle against a zombie krogan. Charging headbutt for the win! The fact that my character was wearing a part of a dead krogan's head did not diminish the awesome I was witnessing here.

"I don't get it. I thought that in order to win the game you need to work as a team," Tali mutters in slight disbelief.

Yeah, it should've been pretty simple. The only problem that we encountered was… ourselves. It's quite sad actually since most of the time Garrus and I were finding elaborate ways to kill eachother. So far I died three times from a grenade Garrus 'accidentally' threw at my feet.

Garrus scoffs at that. "The game has a teamkilling feature. If the designers didn't want players killing each other, it wouldn't be there," he explains.

"That's probably there to ensure you don't shoot your teammate. Force you to pick your shots carefully," Tali says.

Oddly enough Garrus and I shake out heads at the same time. "You just don't understand Tali, you just don't understand," Garrus sighs cryptically and I give a sagely nod. That's damn true. If the game gives you the opportunity to kill your teammates, and you don't use it, it means you don't get the full playing experience.

Well, it's time for revenge. Garrus is currently stuck on his mound of crates and the human zombies are right below him. I aim at the crate below Garrus and open fire. After a couple of seconds the crate breaks down and causes Garrus to fall down, right into the zombie horde that gathered below him. His character flails around and slaps the zombies around for a while before he finally succumbs to his wounds and dies with an agony-filled scream. Oh, and all that while I was standing a few feet away, watching the spectacle.

Incredibly slowly Garrus turns his head and gives me a blank look. "Oh, sorry. I would've helped, but I could shoot you by accident, so..." I say, trying my earnest not to laugh, not that it helped. My voice cracked a couple of times.

It sure helped that we played on the easiest difficulty, otherwise it would've been game over for us. Oddly enough, the difficulty setting didn't change the difficulty at all, just the amount of lives we had. Most of the enemies were still freaking hard to kill, and honestly, we killed eachother more times than the AI did so far. Thankfully, the easy difficulty had unlimited lives.

Garrus grumbles angrily as he waits for his character to respawn while all the remaining zombies turn their attention to me. Oh, shit! Okay, aiming with the analog stick is a lot harder. I dunno, it's way simpler with a mouse in my opinion but I can work with what I have. I blindly spray automatic fire into the small horde, which slows them down but unfortunately, overheats my weapon. Goddamn shitty rifle! Overheats after a second of firing!

Fuck, switching to melee. Garrus sure gave me an odd look once I constructed this makeshift spear and even laughed a bit... at least until I stabbed him in the ass with it. He stopped laughing at that point. I quickly start stabbing at the zombies, which actually pushes them back with much success. Considering they were between me and the enemy survivors who were still shooting at me, they were soaking up the bullets for me and quickly dying... again.

I love the fact that I can wield the spear in several different ways. I stop stabbing them once there are only three zombies remaining and I'm not about to be swarmed and do a wide spin, spear leading the way. "Decapitatioooooooon!" I shout in glee at the result of the wide and seemingly silly spin, which was a magnificent double decapitation, as my shout signified. The last zombie's head explodes, which meant Garrus respawned. A second later a sniper round impacts my character's ass, which lowers my health to a measly 3%. "Motherfucker!" I yell at Garrus, looking at him with a most heated glare.

Garrus puts on a surprised face. "Whoa, sorry about that. I thought there was a zombie there!" he says unconvincingly.

Oh, Garrus, you bloody bastard. I'll get you for this! Rounds start flying at us again and we both run for cover. It's time to finish off the annoying survivors... and take their supplies! The area is not very good for us. We're on the top floor of some kind of a big warehouse and there are catwalks all around the place. There's a room that looks like an office, overlooking the whole warehouse but unfortunately it's occupied and there's only one half-destroyed catwalk to cross in order to get there.

I guess we'll have to kill them first. I switch back to my shitty ranged weapon and open fire at them. Since the AI is pretty dangerous and my lack of HP doesn't help one bit, it takes us a while to kill them off but in the end, we do it without getting injured to much. Thank god for that, we're already suffering enough penalties from all the damage we took. Fuck, we need a medkit.

However, as the final survivor falls down from our combined firepower reality strikes. We just killed around five armed survivors... who had supplies, weapons and who knows what else. And everything we got... was not shared between us. Which meant only one of us could have the good stuff. I look at Garrus at the same time as he does and we lock our gazes. I patiently wait until he makes the first move. If I start running first, he just might shove me out of the way and take away my new weapon!

We're locked in this standoff and the only thing we lack is one of those songs from western movies. My finger twitches on the controller and I'm eager to start running but I know that if I do it too early, I will lose the prize. Garrus knows it too and he's not going to start running first. He'll wait for me to do it first and steal my stuff right from under my nose. I narrow my eyes at him and he does the same. Any minute now... any second and shit will hit the fan.

"Keelah..." Tali sighs at the scene and I'm pretty sure she's rolling her eyes now but we pretty much ignore her. We have more important things at stake here. The fate of the next few levels is to be decided right here, right now.

As one, without any warning whatsoever, we start running at the same time by sheer luck. Since Garrus plays a turian character and I play a human, his character runs faster, for some unexplained reason, and he reaches the catwalk first but I'm right on his tail. Luckily for me, the catwalk is pretty banged up and most of the guardrail is missing so there's a danger of falling down, which pretty much forces Garrus to slow down a bit. This was the biggest mistake he could ever do.

I hold down the designated 'hit' button as I sprint and my character holds his shoulder in front of him in preparation for a powerful shove. Garrus' jaw opens a bit in shock and he quickly tries to fix the situation. He tries to move out of the way but it's already too late. I hit him in the back and send him flying forward... right off the catwalk and down to a painful death. I quickly stable myself and run the remainder of the catwalk to grab the good loot before Garrus respawns.

"Ugh, cheating bastard," Garrus scoffs as he looks at me with annoyance.

My response is a shit-eating grin.

* * *

><p>"So that's where you are," a voice causes us to turn around and see Shepard standing by the door, looking at us amusedly.<p>

I raise an eyebrow. "That was fast," I remark. It's been... what, an hour by now?

This gets me a confused looks. "Fast? It's been a couple of hours, at the least," she says.

Really? I look at Garrus, who just nods. Wow, time sure flies when you have fun. At some point Tali left to do her job and I'm a bit sad to admit that I barely noticed she left. Can't turn my back to Garrus for even a moment. He might stab me in the back the moment I lose awareness!

"I see you found the console," she says with a smile. "mind if I join you?" she suddenly asks.

"You play?" I ask, a bit incredulously. Shepard plays video games? That's a bit... unexpected. I guess I just thought that because she's a military officer she has better things to do than play some games. I guess that I was wrong.

"A bit," she admitted. "though almost everyone on this ship refuses to play with me, probably because I have a higher rank and they think I'd get angry if they beat me or something," she adds with a small frown.

"Well, you can go ahead and join us," I invite her, patting the spot next to me. "though be careful, Garrus loves stealing everyone's supplies."

"I do not!" Garrus rebukes indignantly.

Shepard meanwhile plugs in the third controlled and the screen splits again. Thank god the screen is so damn big. If we were playing this on my old TV we would be having a hard time seeing anything. The game pauses and we patiently watch Shepard choosing the 'load character' option and from there she loads Cmdr Shepard. A moment later a woman who resembles Shepard joins us in the game, wearing high-grade armor and carrying more weapons than both of us put together.

Okay... something is definitely wrong in here. "Where the hell did you get a rocket launcher?" I ask as I look at her suspiciously.

Shepard tries and fails to look innocent.

* * *

><p>Okay, Shepard freaking lied. She played 'a bit'. Yeah right. "Goddammit, leave something to me!" I whine when Shepard shoots down all the human zombies that I was attacking. <em>Again<em>.

Even Garrus was quieter than usual, since she was stealing his kills as well but he still managed to kill one or two from time to time. To make matters worse, I have no idea what kind of weapon Shepard is using, but her rifle seemingly never overheats. _Ever_. She just keeps shooting and shooting and rarely stops.

"So how was the mission?" I ask, both because I was interested and because it might distract Shepard enough for me to get a kill or two.

"A total failure," she sighs. "the guy's brother was already dead when we arrived. At least we got the pirates who did."

"Ah," I slowly say. It was that mission for that guy in the presidium. "so where are we heading next?" I ask as I furiously tap the button and my character headbutts a zombie, whose head explodes for some unexplained reason, though I'm willing to bet it's because of my krogan crest helmet.

"Oh, this should be more fun, I guess. We're going to pay a visit to an Alliance Major who apparently got some biotic followers and killed some Alliance officials when they came to investigate. We'll be arriving in a day, give or take several hours," she explained quickly. Ah, Major... Kale, or Kyle, I think. Not really sure. "Garrus will be coming with me on this mission," she added.

"Oh, good. I was wondering when I'll get to see some action," Garrus remarks. Hm, that was true. Garrus hadn't been on a single mission so far, save for the one in Chora's Den. Shepard then looks at me.

"Since Chakwas hadn't cleared you yet, you'll stay here for now," she says and I nod in disappointment. I don't know what Chakwas did to my injury but whatever it was, it worked wonders. The bruise was no longer purple and black and most of the skin got it's normal color back. After a single day I hadn't even felt any pain coming from that region, though I wasn't about to jump around to test how much I healed so far.

"Yep, got it. I think I'll visit her tomorrow to see how much I healed," I say and Shepard agrees that it would be a good idea.

"So how's your training so far? Kaidan mentioned you showed interest in tech training," Shepard remarks all of a sudden.

Oh, how nice of her. She shows interest in my training. "Yeah, I do. Everyone can learn how to shoot a gun, and since I already know how to do that, I have the opportunity to be even more useful... so why the hell not? Overloading shields and overheating weapons seems like something very useful to me."

I wasted several hours wondering about which class I should go with, and so far the soldier class was fitting me the most, but I could try to become an engineer... or an infiltrator. Then, after a while I recalled that I'm not limited by game mechanics and I could be whatever the hell I wanted, as long as I could find the training. I could be both a soldier and an engineer or whatever else I could come up with.

"That's a good line of thinking. Most people just stick to what they do best," Garrus comments.

"Yeah. Sometimes I regret not learning that many useful tech skills. I can hack doors, which is one of the N7 training, but overloading shields sounds like a very useful thing against the geth," Shepard says thoughtfully.

"You still have biotics, which is both awesome and useful," I say. "I wouldn't mind having that particular ability."

"Useful, yeah. But after you use it for a while, it's not very comfortable. Just ask Kaidan about it, he can tell you about the killer migraines he gets. I'm luckier on that account. I get those only after extensive overuse," she says, somewhat bitterly. Yeah, I guess having migraines does seem like a very annoying thing. Kinda ruins the hype, I guess.

I turn my attention back to the game since there is a new wave of enemies coming at us. I don't understand why, but all the alien zombies are cooler and more dangerous. Turians have a one-hit kill special attack, krogans are freaking tanks and asari are freaking biotic zombies. You can't get more badass than that. And humans are just classic zombies. A bit disappointing really.

We move through narrow corridor, Garrus and me side by side. Since Shepard joined us we pretty much toned down the killing eachother thing. We still shoved each other around when it came to supplies, but at least we stopped the pointless bloodshed.

"Turian!" I announce when I spot the mutated turian that came rushing at us along with around a dozen human zombies. I already mentioned to Garrus that I thought the mutated turian looked epically badass. Their talons were a lot longer and sharper, and dripping blood. They were agile, tough and dangerous. Quite a mini-boss, if I could call them that.

We slowly move back and I switch back to my spear, which works wonders. It was almost as effective as a biotic shockwave. Fast attack speed and impressive stopping power. I furiously stab at everything that comes at us and Garrus supports me with his heavy pistol, blowing heads. The turian zombie reaches us and I'm about to stab him in the face but before I could do anything suddenly explode and die.

I look accusingly at Garrus but I'm surprised to see him staring confusedly at the screen and then look at me with the same look. Okay, I don't think this is Garrus' fault and this means... I look at Shepard who pointedly looks away, though I can easily see she's fighting down a smile. I stare at her blankly, quickly join by Garrus.

"Oops?" she finally says, trying to look sheepish.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, the chapter is pretty uneventful, but heck, I freaking enjoyed writing it! Hopefully you enjoyed reading it. <strong>

**o yeah, I think that we will get to the next mission after the next chapter. We still need to visit the Citadel, right? So yeah, get ready for it, because in two chapters, thing will get interesting!  
><strong>

**On another side note: Hell fucking yeah! This friday, on PAX, Bioware supposedly has a very important and 'amazing' announcement to make. This supposedly should make us, the fans, happier. Yeah, I pray that they're releasing something that will change the end, or actually make it make sense, but considering my experience with Bioware, it will probably be something we will have to pay money to see. So yeah, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.**

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hah! I am back once again and this. Is. FRIDAY! Yes people, it is friday and today we should find out something interesting about Mass Effect 3. I hope that it's not something silly and overly anticlimactic, like a powerpoint presentation explaining the endings. Or worse, if it can be. So yeah, let's hope for the best!**

**So yeah, I'm not going to waste your time, so here is the new chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>I have this awful sensation that is hard to describe. I was feeling as if something was missing, Not that kind when you can't find your pen, or something like that, but more of the kind where you cant find something substantially important. I felt as if I had a gaping hole in my stomach, a hole that constantly sucked out all my energy and left me incapable to do anything other than moan and bitch about it. This sensation made me desperately search for something to fill the gaping abyss that gradually sucked the life out of me, but whatever I did simply could not fill it enough. I'm afraid that if I don't fill this... abyss I will do something stupid and potentially dangerous. After a while I finally realized what this horrible curse is.<p>

I was bored.

Well, maybe I was hungry too, but I could take care of it easily enough.

This was pretty surreal to me, especially when I put some thought into it. Here I am on the most advanced spaceship in Citadel space... not to mention that a little over half a year ago I could only dream about being on a real spaceship. But here I am, standing in a place where no man or woman from my time even dreamed about. And I was _bored_.

I guess that after a while it stopped being so exciting, pretty much like how the aliens on the Citadel started to seem normal for me after a while. I guess I can be thankful that I have an easy time getting used to stuff.

Still, I was bored as hell. I had absolutely nothing to do and while Tali did give me a much harder hacking practice by upgrading the security on the cursed datapad – thus making it much harder for me to open the damn thing – it still got boring after a few hours. I needed something to do.

Shepard left to deal with Major Kyle and she took almost everyone with her, save for me, Wrex and Kaidan. I guess I'll see Kaidan when I'll go up to get myself something to eat. For now I guess I'll... do some work out, maybe. I haven't done anything lately other than mess around with my omni-tool and the damn datapad.

I put on my workout clothes and go to the garage. Wow, I miss the presidium now. It was a lot more comfortable running there, since I had a lot of room to run when I needed to run somewhere. Compared to that, the garage is cramped. Still, I'll use what I have, though I heard talk that we had a treadmill somewhere on the ship, though I didn't ask about it yet.

The garage is empty, which is strange since Wrex usually there by now. I actually have no idea if he was even sleeping at all, since he always went to sleep after me and got up earlier than everyone else. Well, he probably has some thing to do or something. So I start running and try to figure out how many laps I should do before I finally settle on ten or so. No point in getting myself tired for no reason and Chakwas did say I shouldn't do something too taxing.

I still had some things on my mind, so I guess it would be a good time to dwell on them. Our next stop is going to be the Citadel and I want to check out the Den so see what happened to it after Shepard visited. Canon says it has a new owner and I'm quite curious. I'm also curious about Johnson and Tilben and now I feel quite bad about not saying a word to them that I went with Shepard. I wonder if they're worrying about me.

I also had some less important ideas, like checking out certain shops that I hadn't paid attention to before I joined Shepard. I want to give my armor a more... personalized look and I want to buy myself a better weapon. The assault rifle and pistol that I had were relatively average and there were a lot better ones in the market. We're going against one of the best Specters in the galaxy and I think that I should get my gear upgraded. Besides, I didn't really like my helmet. Don't know why, it just felt stuffy and felt too large on my head. Maybe my head was small? I dunno.

As I was doing my... damn, I lost count again. Anyway, as I was doing one of my laps I see Wrex step out of the elevator. "Wrex," I greet him without stopping as he walks over to his usual spot and leans against the wall, where he proceeds to observe me for several silent minutes.

Well, now I'm a bit uncomfortable. How am I supposed to run peacefully when Wrex is silently staring at me like this? Meh, I might as well finish this already. I stop by my locker and take out my armor case and the rest of my armor. I might as well pack it since I'm planning to upgrade it later. "So what are you doing?" I ask Wrex.

"Standing," was the simple reply. I had to pause the packing and stare at him for a second before I shook my head. Great, I'm getting sarcasm instead of an answer.

"No, I mean other than standing. It's just that you're always standing here and... doing nothing," I elaborate. I'm kinda curious as hell, really. I simply refuse to believe that Wrex just stands around doing nothing all day. Then again, maybe he's actually doing stuff whenever I'm not around to see it. Who knows? Its not like I always hang out in the garage anyway.

"I wait. And get bothered by you and Shepard. Is this a human thing? Bothering everyone to talk with them, or is it only you and Shepard?"

I snicker at that. I haven't really seen anyone other than me and Shepard approach Wrex to talk with him. "I don't really know. I guess that most would just be too nervous to bother you in the first place," I supply and he gives me a thoughtful looks.

"And you're not nervous about it," he states more than asks.

"Yep. After working with that krogan bouncer in Chora's Den for six months I think I got used to krogans. The most he said to me was a grunt, a growl and a death threat. You're a lot nicer than him, considering you actually talk to me.," this made Wrex snort, though I could see some hints of laughter in the way he snorted. "So... tell me about yourself."

"Why would you want to know about me?"

Well, considering I already know a lot about you but just cant show it and the fact that you're awesome? I guess I don't want to play ignorant all the time and avoid the chance of me slipping out some details I shouldn't know in the first place. "Well... you're a krogan!" I say, gesturing at him with my hands. "You probably lived centuries by now. I bet you have a lot of interesting things to tell, both about yourself and about the krogan species."

He hums in thought for several seconds. "What do you want to know?" he finally asks.

Oh yeah! This is definitely the green light for me to ask my questions! "Well, tell me about the krogans?"

Wrex snorts at that question. "We're dying," he deadpanned.

By the nine hells, Wrex. Way to ruin the mood. And I was getting excited too. "The genophage. For the record, I'm against the genophage. It's one step away from genocide. Hell, it's probably worse. Instead of just wiping you out they do it agonizingly slowly. It's like... driving a knife into your heart in an extremely slow manner," I slowly say. Considering the krogan love fighting and most die in combat instead of natural causes, the genophage is a death sentence for them.

Wrex huffs in agreement. "Sounds about right. Too bad most don't share your opinion."

"You'd be surprised how many people are against the genophage," I say vaguely. Well, I honestly have no clue how many people are against it here. Pretty much all my friends who played Mass Effect were against the genophage, me included. "But really, I wasn't asking about the genophage. I'm more interested in what makes a krogan... a krogan."

"What there is to know? We love fighting," Wrex explains simply. "it's in our blood."

"What, just fighting?" I ask and get a nod in return.

"Have you been on Tuchanka?" Wrex asks.

Well, technically I was, but not in person. "No," I answer.

"If you would visit one day, you'll understand. Tuchanka is not a forgiving place. If you want to live, you need to know how to fight. The weak don't live long. That's why every krogan can't live without fighting. If you don't fight, you wont live long."

"But... you gotta have something else. Every species has it. We all have our old mythologies, legends, heroes, history, art, music. It's what makes cultures. Surely you have something other than fighting."

"Not really. The Council took care of that. You'll have to be an idiot to not know how to use a drum and the closest we have to legends are the tales of our past warlords. Our clan shamans know more about our past but a lot of krogans don't really care about the it."

"And why is that?"

"Again, the genophage. The past reminds us of what we _were_ and what we are _now,_ and why we will never be the same again. We're dying and every krogans knows it somewhere inside. We don't have scientists working on curing the damn thing, and if there are any, they quickly give up. Most just prefer to go fighting somewhere, becoming a mercenary instead of trying to find a damn cure."

"And this doesn't help because these krogans just get themselves killed in the end, further reducing the numbers," I finish the grim picture. It's one thing to hear this from the game, but it's entirely different to hear it directly from Wrex.

"Exactly. Give them a choice and they will always pick fighting," Wrex concludes bitterly. "why would someone want to dwell on the fact that his species is dying out if he could just go and do what he does best instead?"

"Well, I can somewhat understand them. But you're here too, as mercenary, and not on Tuchanka. Did you do the same?" I ask. I already knew the answer but... I feel that I have to get it from Wrex, and not rely on what was in the game. Not too much, at least.

He sends me a sharp look and made me nervous for a second. "No," was his quick reply. I waited for several seconds for him to elaborate but he didn't say a thing. I guess he's not ready to talk about it.

Man... this sucks. Hearing it from the game was different than this. I felt a sorry for them but this is completely different. I'm here, in the same place as them. They are living beings and they are dying it. I guess it just carries... more impact. And here I was hoping for a less depressing conversation. "Well, your species isn't going to die out tomorrow and you live for quite a long time. Maybe in a few years, maybe decades or centuries someone will develop a cure."

"Maybe. I don't know. I do know that it wont be the Council. They don't give a damn about us. Instead of making sure we don't die out, the krogans just keep on killing eachother. No one gives a damn."

I sigh slowly. "I know that it wont make much of a difference, but I do give a damn," I say.

Wrex stares at me for a long while and I'm having trouble keeping eye contact with him. Thankfully he looks away before he burned a hole through my head with his gaze. "It wont..." he said quietly.

Before I could say anything else, or before I could even think about what to say, the ship suddenly jerks. Okay, this is very new to me. What the hell is going on? Wrex doesn't look very surprised or concerned so he probably knows what's going on. In fact, he starts to... leave? As I am about to ask him for an explanation the red warning light start blaring. "Uh... what's going on?" I carefully ask.

"Shepard's coming back. We should go, unless you want to suffocate," Wrex explain gruffly.

Oh, in that case I think I should follow him. I follow him into engineering and the door seals behind us. The rest of the people in engineering don't seem concerned or anything so I guess it's normal for them. When we returned to the Normandy after Therum we just walked inside after it landed but now I remember that Therum had an atmosphere, which this place lacks. So I guess it means everyone has to evacuate the garage when a planet without proper atmosphere is involved.

We wait there for several minutes until the red light above the door turns off and the door unseals itself. Without any words Wrex strolls back into the garage and I quickly follow him. The Mako is already parked in its usual place and Shepard and the rest of the team are climbing out of the vehicle. "How did it go?" I ask loudly as I walk over to the Commander.

"As smoothly as possible. Major Kyle agreed to surrender without a fight," Shepard says as she removes her helmet and I see her beaming smile.

"That's good to hear," I say, returning the smile. Yeah, she was definitely a paragon.

"Yeah," she then sighed in relief. "I barely managed to convince him. It almost turned into a bloodbath and I'm really not sure if we would've got out of there in one piece. So many biotics..." she muttered the last part under her breath.

"Well, you did and you got out without a fight, so it's good," I remark, still smiling like an idiot. I don't know why, it just makes me a bit excited that we completed a mission with good results, even if I wasn't involved. "So next stop is the Citadel?"

"Yes. We'll be heading there now," she sends a glance at the others, who were storing their gear in their lockers. "I gotta go now. I need to call Hackett and tell him about Major Kyle. I'll see you later," and with that Shepard walks off into the elevator and disappears from sight.

Well, next stop is the Citadel. I better get my shopping list ready.

* * *

><p>It took us around a single uneventful day to reach the Citadel and by that time I'm fully geared and ready. Right now we're about to dock and I curiously watch the process from my spot behind Joker, who seemed a bit annoyed by it. "Do you mind not breathing down my neck?"<p>

Well... I could do what he asks or I could do the opposite. Considering I'm in a good mood right now I think I'll be a dick. I start breathing in a very loud manner and lean closer to Joker's head, just to annoy him even more.

"Really?" Joker asks and turns his head to look at me. I quickly lean back and try my best to look innocent. He huffs in annoyance and turns his attention back to the docking process. The ships jerks lightly when those weird clamps... clamp on to the ship and lock us in place.

"Is everything good Joker?" Shepard asks from behind me. I take note that she's wearing her armor and has her weapons on her person. Hm, maybe she expects trouble or something. Could be paranoia too. I'm wearing my casual street clothes, though I did take my pistol with me, just in case.

"Docking is done..." he says as he taps something into one of the consoles and checks the other ones. I honestly have no idea what he's doing here and it all looks... impressive in it's own way. "you're free to go, though do you mind if we leave this one behind? He breathes too loudly for me to concentrate," he asks, jerking a thumb at my direction. "and I have a demanding job."

"Sorry Joker, we still need him," Shepard defends me, though she seems to be more amused than serious.

"Sure, go ahead and keep him," he says curtly. Hey, what am I, a dog? I'm standing right here! "just don't blame me when I crash the ship into an asteroid or something."

Gee, the guy can't take a joke. I give pick up my armor case and walk over to the airlock with Shepard and then I see Liara, Tali and Garrus walking over to us. "You're coming too?" I ask.

"I got some things I need to check," Garrus replies with a shrug. I look over at Liara and Tali.

"We're coming with Shepard to buy new supplies and equipment," Tali explained. Oh, that explains it. "And you?" Tali asks me.

"I got a shopping list of my own. I think my gear needs some upgrades," I say with a smirk. Hell yeah, I saved up enough money to buy myself some pretty good stuff. Then again, I have no clue how much a new gun even costs. Maybe they are freakishly pricy?

Shepard opens the airlock doors and we walk out of the ship, followed by the VI announcing Shepard's leave. I look at Liara as we walk and step around Wrex to walk beside her. "How was your first mission?" I ask. I feel as if I was leaving her out most of the time. Maybe it was because she was in the med-bay and I was trying my best to stay away from that place. I only talked with her once since she joined the crew. I guess it's time to make it twice.

"It was... interesting," Liara said after a moment of thought. "the Commander is surprisingly diplomatic."

I chuckle at that. "True. You'd expect her just to shoot stuff, being a soldier and all," I say jokingly.

"Sometimes shooting is just not enough," Shepard pipes in, since we didn't really talk quietly. She probably overheard me.

"This is so new to me. I have never worked with humans before, so I have no knowledge on how they do things," Liara says, mainly looking at me and Shepard.

"How about the other races?" I ask. A good question, I think. In the game she said she doesn't know much about humans, don't know about the other races.

"I worked with them on occasion, but mostly I was working alone," Liara supplied. Wow, that sounds depressing as hell. Working alone on some distant planet for who knows how long. This was definitely a career I was never going to look into.

I'm about to reply but a man exiting the elevator in front of us interrupts me. I instantly recognize him the moment I see him. It's that Russian Alliance officer that inspects the ship! I totally forgot about him until now! Shepard quickly stopped in front of the officer.

"Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, Fifth Fleet," he introduced himself, giving a crisp salute. From the lazy tone of his voice I quickly understood that he thought he has better things to do.

Shepard straightens herself and offers him a salute. "We weren't told to expect you, Sir. I would've prepared a formal greeting."

The Rear Admiral didn't look impressed in the slightest. "Spare me the pleasantries. I command the 63rd Scout Flotilla. You and the Normandy were slighted from my unit after shakedown, and the Council got their paws, claws, tentacles... whatever, they got them on our ship... and you."

Shepard's eyes narrow slightly but it's quickly gone. She looks at us briefly. "Go ahead without me," she says quietly before she turns back to the Rear Admiral. "I still serve the Alliance, Sir. As a Spectre I can advance our interests to the Council."

Okay, I think we should leave. Mikhailovich eyes us for a couple of seconds as we quietly make our leave. "He doesn't look pleased," Tali quietly mutters as we step into the elevator.

"That's an understatement. He looks pissed off," I give my input. "Then again, he was about to have one of the most advanced ships in the galaxy in his unit, only for it to be snatched away, so to speak. It's somewhat understandable."

Huh, I can't believe I defended him right now. The guy is an asshole. "He doesn't seem to like the other Council races," Liara remarks.

"I guess he's pissed that the Council got the Normandy and not him. Or he really might not like aliens," I say with a shrug. It doesn't really matter anyway. "Or maybe he just thinks that humanity should stop kissing the Council's ass and actually do something for themselves. A lot of people seem to think that way," I add. Garrus chuckled at that, probably due to my choice of words.

"What do you mean by that?" Liara asks curiously.

Oh... uhm, how do I answer that? Well, I can try, at least. I guess it's time to use all the relatively useless knowledge I got from the games. "Well, humanity are pretty much the newcomers here. Not many really respect us yet, and there is a lot of animosity from some of the races. After all this while we don't seem to be getting anywhere. Some people think that instead of just doing what the Council says, listen to to their every whim and wait until they throw a bone to us, we should actually do something productive and make our own place in the galaxy. Surprisingly a lot of humans think like that. Still, we got ourselves a human Spectre and everyone thinks that a Council seat is what follows, so I guess some of them will finally shut up," I explain, trying to explain it in a way they can easily understand. It's quite weird to explain stuff like this, especially considering everyone is listening to me now.

"Uh... throw a bone?" Garrus asks, a bit awkwardly.

I look at him oddly for a second. Okay, this is... weird. How am I supposed to answer that question? I scratch the back of my head in thought. "We got dogs, which are common pets. Domesticated animals, you know? Anyway, it's common that whenever a dog did something good, you give it a treat, food or in this case, a bone, which they love to chew," I explain slowly. Gosh, I hope I explained it properly. I'm not really sure if I'm the right guy to explain human sayings. I look at Garrus who nods in understanding as I explained it.

"So they think the Council treats them like pets?" Liara asked with a bit of incredulity.

"Uh, not in that sense. It's common to do it to children too. You know, to show the child that if you do something good, you get rewarded and if you do something bad, you get punished. These humans are annoyed because no matter what we do, we don't get anything in return to all the things we give to the Council. Thus, we're waiting for them to throw a bone to us," I explain awkwardly. By the nine hells! Trying to sound smart is hard work!

"I think I understand it now," Liara says with a slow nod, appearing thoughtful for some reason.

We stay quiet after that and for several seconds we just stand still, waiting until the amazingly slow elevator would finally reach down. Oh god, I hate elevator rides like these. Sometimes I just start laughing for no reason whenever it's too quiet in an elevator. I have no idea why. Wow, this is awkward. Apparently Garrus had enough of this awkward silence and clears his throat. "So... Tali. Tell me about the quarian people," he says.

As soon as he says that I cant help but grin.

* * *

><p>After we reached C-sec we all split-up. Garrus went to do whatever he needed to do. Tali and Liara went to get the supplies while I took an aircar to that particular shop that caught my attention a few months before. Overall I have to say that all my plans were in for a disappointment.<p>

I had a little over fifty thousand credits saved and I really hope that it should be enough for all the things I had in mind. The shop had everything I wanted and needed. Both weapons and armor were on sale, which is what I needed the most.

I didn't really have much to compare my armor to, but apparently my armor was classified as a medium armor, which was fine with me. The upgrades were a bit expensive, but I was ready for it anyway. Apparently I paid enough to upgrade it by three marks, though I had no idea what that meant. I didn't bother to ask anyway since I was running on a tight schedule.

As for the helmet... I took care of it surprisingly quick. As soon as I saw that helmet, I knew that I wanted it. It reminded very much of the helmets most of the Eclipse mercs wore in the second game and I think that it looks very good. The vendor was nice enough to even let me try it on! It surprisingly fit nicely and the field of view was not interrupted in any way. In my opinion, it was a lot more comfortable than the standard Alliance helmets. It look cooler as well.

And then, the vendor dropped the bomb on me. It came in the form of a simple question: "do you want to add some customization?"

After a few quick question I enthusiastically said yes. He just gave me a console and told me to have fun deciding what customizations I wanted. I think I didn't stop grinning once while I was having fun. Add some black color here, make this color darker, add some red here. It took me about fifteen minutes to decide what I wanted but in the end, it was totally worth it. Can't wait until everyone sees this.

Soon after that I picked out a new assault rifle and a pistol. I was eying one of the shotguns for a few moments but decided against it. I think that for now my two weapons should be enough. I didn't need to be picky with the weapons so that went quickly, especially since I already knew what upgrades I wanted installed in the new weapons.

With a resigned sigh I handed him my credit chit and paid a little over 45 thousand credits and I was told to wait around two hours until the work was done. This suited me fine as I had a schedule.

Unfortunately, my schedule was utterly ruined. Chora's Den was closed for repairs, which made me wonder what the hell Shepard did to the place to begin with. I couldn't locate Tilben or Johnson and they didn't reply to the messages I sent them. After that I went to Flux to see if by any chance I could find the two there but when I saw that they weren't there. Thankfully, the turian bartender told me that they were still alive, which was a relief. I got myself a beer and wasted my time until it was time for me to go back to collect my new gear.

Much to my pleasure, my armor was done sooner than I expected and when I arrived to the shop my weapons and armor were already waiting for me, packed and ready to be carried. I thanked the ship vendor again and left his store with a wide smile on my face. Thankfully I wasn't stopped by C-sec, since I was carrying around quite an intimidating amount of weapons and I think my weapon license was only allowing my to carry one pistol... not an assault rifle and an extra heavy pistol.

To my surprise, I was one of the first ones to return. Apparently Shepard dealt with Mikhailovich and got him to approve of the ship and it's crew and then she left to catch up with Liara and Tali, and still hadn't returned. Garrus was already aboard and I was the second to come back. This suited me fine and while I was already in the CIC I asked about our next destination, which was Feros.

Plant zombies, brainwashed colonists and geth. Yeah, I just cant wait for us to get there. And then, a horrible, terrifying thought occurs to me. There are those bridges we have to cross, who knows how high above the ground. We have to cross them. On the Mako. Which _Shepard _will be driving...

Suddenly I feel very afraid.

* * *

><p><strong>Hehe, yeah. Shepard's driving skills is something to be terrified of. So yeah, next chapter is Feros and I believe it should be fun. Really, who <em>doesnt<em> like Feros? It has plant zombies!**

**So yeah, a new armor! I believe that you will find out just how it's customized next chapter. So yeah, for now I have nothing more to say. So meanwhile I'm going to sit tight and eagerly wait until Bioware shows us whatever they have to appease the masses (pun intended... then again, its a rather lame pun). Heh, I'm still finding it to be incredibly awesome that the story crossed the 100K word mark. It's quite a bit amount for me! The longest I've written so far. So yeah, thanks to everyone who supports this story! feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you thought about the chapter and the story :D**

**Oh, and I have a very curious question that's been on my mind for quite a long while... and I honestly can't find a satisfying answer. And yeah... it's a weird question too. I just want to hear your opinion. Maybe you can actually give me a good answer! So here it is: I noticed it mostly in the second game but there are moments where the characters are in space... as in, the very cold, freezing space. And the only thing they wear are those face masks they get when there's no breathable air around. I mean, look at Samara! I think she'll be... you know, COLD! Grunt has his arms exposed but he's a krogan, so he might just not give a damn about the temperature outside. Zaeed and Kasumi just wear those masks too. So, can someone explain this to me, somehow? :D**

**So yeah, I'll return later with a new chapter. Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Ooooh, yeah! I'm finally back! I would've finished this chapter sooner but I had a rather busy week so far. And sadly, I think I'll get even more busy as time passes. I have but a month to finish my diploma work (or whatever it's called in English) so... yeah, I'm about halfway done through that work, so I still have to finish it, not to mention I still need to draw that bloody engine blueprint, which will take me hours to draw and then even more hours to perfect. Jesus, I'm gonna be overworked soon!**

**Anyway, this chapter is longer than usual and I enjoyed writing it! Feros begins, which means this chapter is rather action packed! So yeah, I'm not going to keep you waiting for too long, so go ahead and enjoy the chapter!**

**Oh, and on the AN after the chapter, I believe I have more stuff to say about ME3...**

**Note: A helpful reviewer, Nanobot5770, noted that I had a continuity error. Now it's fixed and you will no longer be confused! Huzzah!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>We're approaching Feros and I think we will arrive in less than an hour. Shepard told us to get ready so that's what I'm doing. I think that we're going to fly through Feros, considering the team is huge this time! Shepard, Kaidan, Liara, Wrex and I are going to be on the ground team and I think that the odds are a bit unfair for the geth. With a ground team this big we're going to breeze through the whole thing. I feel a bit bad for Tali and Ashley though. They're going to be the only ones staying on the Normandy and they will miss all the action. Then again, I'm not really sure that's a really bad thing, with Shepard's driving and the uncomfortable odds against us.<p>

I'm nearly done putting on the armor and I gotta say that it's damn awesome. I've checked it out after I got it back but now that I'm wearing it I'm even more pleased. I spent all my money and I'm now officially broke, but it was damn worth it. Upgraded my shield module so now I can take even more damage before I have to get behind cover. They reinforced the plating a bit so I feel safer, just for the time when my shields do run out on me. I'm not sure if it's the armor or me, but it feels lighter too.

Overall, I feel that I now officially look like a badass. Then again, I can't be sure. I believe that I look like a badass even without the armor, so I'll have to see how everyone react to my new style. Damn, I'm feeling giddy all of a sudden.

I finally put on the last part of the armor: the helmet. Ooh, yeah. I love the helmet. I tried it on in the store and it was nice back then but now it's even better. I don't know, I just never liked the Alliance helmets and always preferred the other available ones. This one is among those, even though it was never available in the games. Despite it using a pair of 'eyes' as the visor, my vision was not impaired at the slightest. In fact, I'm seeing as if I'm not wearing a helmet at all. Well, I'm still feeling that I'm wearing one, and I have a HUD, but it doesn't block my view, which is awesome.

I place my rifle and pistol into their places and make sure I have everything on me. Let's see... well, I don't really carry anything other than my weapons so I'm ready. I exit my room and walk over to the elevator. After a relatively long while the elevator finally arrived and I press the button to the top floor. The doors close with a hiss and I almost pray to whatever deity that might be listening that the elevator wont stop in the garage. If it would stop, the ride would be even longer!

After what felt like an hour but in reality was only a minute or so I finally arrive to my destination and walk out of the elevator, quickly making my way up the staircase to the CIC. And as soon as I enter the CIC, everything stops. Well, it doesn't, really. A couple of crewmen stop working to stare at me, at most, as I casually make my way to the airlock, where Shepard and the others should be waiting. All the while, more crewmen gave me looks or glanced at me and gradually my grin grew bigger and bigger behind my helmet. Oh yeah, Normandy, feel my badassitude, feel it.

As I'm approaching the team, apparently I'm the last one they're waiting for, I finally catch their attention. They all turn around to see me and stare at me for several seconds before Kaidan breaks the silence by letting out a whistle.

Heh, I can't blame them for staring, considering I believe I look damn awesome right now. My armor hadn't changed much, honestly. It's still completely black but the helmet on the other hand has some lovely additions, in my opinion at least. Since in my opinion the helmet already reminds me slightly of a skull, I enhanced that effect. I now have a dark crimson grinning skull painted on the helmet and the visor, which looked like the eyes of the skull, glowed with the same dark crimson color. All in all, I think I look damn badass at the moment.

"That's a... nice new look," Kaidan slowly says.

"Aye, I know!" I say excitedly as I stop in front of them. Garrus is staring at me wordlessly, along with Wrex, who looks at me with narrowed eyes as if he tries to spot something hidden. Shepard looks more amused than curious and Liara looks more curious than amused.

"Why a skull?" Liara asks.

Hm, good question and I have just the best answer. "A simple fact. Skulls make everything look cooler," I say sagely. I love how my voice is slightly muffled by the helmet. Dunno, it just feels awesome. Wrex huffs in amusement at my statement, which makes me feel even more awesome.

"I... don't understand," Liara states, still looking at my helmet.

Damn, I don't really know how to explain something like this. I wonder how weird this is for Liara. Humans probably seem so weird to her, especially me, since Shepard is arguably more normal than me. "Uhm..." I slowly start. "it's an ancient human thing. Thousands of years ago wearing skulls was the biggest fashion thing in some areas on our planet. Preferably a skull that belonged to an enemy," I explain. Hm, I wonder if I'm even right here. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, for the most part. "Since over time we became more civilized, instead of using real skulls we use just an image of it, or a fake one."

Hm, I think I won't explain how skulls are used to wage psychological warfare, especially since I would end up looking like an idiot. Psychological warfare against the geth? A somewhat dumb idea. Not to mention that it probably won't work on some of the aliens for obvious reasons.

"It's also a symbol that human pirates used," Wrex adds, surprising me greatly. I have to wonder just _why _Wrex knows such a detail, or how he even knows about it. Apparently I'm not the only one surprised, since both Shepard and Kaidan give him an odd look. "...what?" he grunts in annoyance. Oh my, he actually looks offended!

"Nothing... I just didn't expect you to know something like that," I say. Not to mention useless. Ships don't have flags anymore, it's not like you need the symbols anyway. Well, you know could always paint it on the ship, but that will be quite stupid. Why would you want to broadcast that you're a pirate?

"A human told me about it," Wrex elaborates with a shrug. Well, it makes sense. Wrex had a life before we met him, a very long life, so he probably hanged out with some mercs or pirates at one time.

"So... you are trying to emulate a pirate?" Liara asks with some confusion.

I stare at Liara for several seconds. Really, I hope she will get used to the weirdness of humans and stop asking awkward questions. I guess I should talk with her more often. "No. Consider it... uh, warpaint," I finally say, I guess this should explain everything. Warpaint is a rather simple concept.

"Oh, I understand now," she says sheepishly. "I'm sorry for asking so many questions. It must annoy you," she mutters quietly.

"Oh, no!" I quickly calm her down. "It's okay to ask questions. You're just curious, that's all," I say, trying to convey that everything's fine through my body language, though without much luck. I'm used to using face expressions.

"Approaching the colony," Joker announces, thus interrupting our conversation. Ooh, I want to see this. I walk over to stand behind Joker again, he makes sure to give me a warning stare but I ignore it. I'm not going to do anything anyway. We have a mission after all, I might as well try to act professionally here.

Wow, Feros looks... amazing. Joker flies the Normandy towards one of the towers and while we fly I can take a good look around us. It looks rather... breathtaking. All these endless clouds, almost as if it's a sea beneath us, stretch into the horizon. The weather's a bit gloomy but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. I don't know, I always preferred gloomy weather and I love the winter. I have to wonder what exactly is beneath those clouds and how high are we at the moment. I'm not afraid of heights but I'm not exactly calm either when there's an endless drop beneath me.

Joker expertly, as far as I'm concerned, steers the Normandy into one of the towers and the docking mechanism soon clamps onto the ship with a gentle nudge. Joker checks his consoles for several seconds before he gives Shepard a nod. "Normandy is docked and..." he pressed a few buttons with unnecessary flare. "you're good to go!"

"Good job, Joker," Shepard says, to which Joker just snorts, and turns to us. "Okay, get yourselves ready, check your gear, make sure you brought everything and let's head out," she says.

It takes us about twenty seconds before we all step into the airlock. We have to wait a few seconds while the airlock equalizes interior pressure with exterior atmosphere, if the Normandy VI is to be believed, until the door finally opens and we walk out. "Logged. The Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Pressly has the deck," the VI announces as we leave.

"Hm, it's a bit... too quiet in my opinion," I mutter when we finally cross the docking bridge. I know that we're about to get attacked by geth... I think, but it's still a bit creepy in here. The only thing I can hear is the wind and our footsteps, which happen to echo around us. It's as if it's a ghost... dock.

"That's true," Kaidan agrees. "it is a bit too quiet," he mutters as he looks around suspiciously.

"The colony _is_ under attack," Garrus pipes in. "Maybe they're just too busy to man the docks," Garrus says, being the voice of logic. He makes a good point too.

Shepard seems to think this over before she speaks. "Be on your guard anyway. I don't want any surprises," she says and takes out her pistol, just in case. With this unspoken signal we all take out our weapons. I make myself comfortable with my new assault rifle. It's pretty similar to my old one in design, so it won't take me a lot to get used to it.

As we continue walking I spot a man, most likely a colonist walking up to us from the other side. Oh! It's that... guy who greets us and then... blows up. Ouch. Maybe I should change the outcome in this? I doubt it will have any major consequences. I doubt I can just watch how someone dies like that in front of me anyway, especially when I can do something about it. "Oh, looks at that. The welcoming committee," I say.

Shepard gives a nod and takes the front. As soon as we approach the man he starts to speak, not giving Shepard the chance to even open her mouth. "We saw your ship. Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately," he says curtly. Huh, that's a bit rude.

Shepard furrows her brow at that. "What's so important that he needs to see me right away?" She asks suspiciously. Hm, I can't blame her for being suspicious. I'd be suspicious too, if I didn't know what was really going on here. This guy has this odd... nearly vacant look in his eyes. He looks at us but from the way he does it it just seems that he's not entirely there. As if he can't properly focus on us.

"The geth are making another push," he says rather monotonously, considering the topic. "Fai Dan is preparing our defenses but he needs your help," he points his thumb at somewhere behind him. "Please. Up the stares past the freighter."

At this moment I hear the telltale sound of geth, particularly that mechanic click noise they make. Oh shit, this is the point where this guy get's killed! I move forward as fast as I can and grab the neck of the guy's shirt and yank him towards me just as Kaidan yells a warning. My actions pretty much save the guy as I see a bright red... flash fly harmlessly behind the guy. Unfortunately, the guy was utterly unprepared and when I pull him he ends up crashing into me, which results in me falling to the floor, with him on top of me.

Holy shit! I actually saved his life! Too bad it ended up looking lame, with the fall and everything. The guy looks somewhat shocked at the whole outcome but I pay him no mind and shove him off of me. "Stay here!" I say without looking at him as I get up. Okay, let's see. Wow, we're really kicking ass! It was barely ten seconds and already we're almost done here. A couple of dead geth are aimlessly floating around, already filled with holes and waiting for the biotics to dissipate. The team already started moving towards the staircase, tearing apart any geth that popped up.

I quickly catch up to them and start helping. I aim at one of the geth, a rocket trooper judging by the color, and start shooting. Since the combined fire from Kaidan and Liara, who were aiming at the same geth, took out the shields, my shots managed to finish it off surprisingly quick. Whoa, I'm not an expert, but I definitely think that there was less recoil now, not to mention the rifle has less spread. Okay, moving on! I pick another geth and line up the rifle but before I could do anything the synthetic's head explodes in a shower of circuits and white fluid. Damn, I can assume that's Garrus, stealing my kill. I pick another geth and take aim and once again, before I can pull the trigger, a second geth, enveloped by the blue light of biotics, come flying at high velocity and smashes into my target. Fuck! Let me shoot something, dammit!

Before I know it, no one is shooting anymore and I don't see any geth around. Wow, that was quick. Then again, there are six of us and I believe that it's more than enough, bordering on overkill. Hm, I look at my HUD, more particularly the small radar thing, which is still jammed. If I recall, we should bump into some geth hoppers up ahead. Damn, I hate those things.

We all look around, still with our weapons raised until Shepard mutters an all clear. We still keep our weapons out, since I'm not the only one who noticed our radars. Shepard then looks at me. "Nice reaction," she says, sounding a bit impressed. I look back at the guy I saved, who is huddled behind the safety rail and then back at Shepard.

"Thanks, I guess. Barely made it," I say. Had I been a second late, the guy would've got a rocket to the face, and he's no Garrus. He can't take a freaking rocket to the face and survive. Neither can I, for that matter. I'm just glad I made it on time. It could've ended worse, like me and the guy eating rocket explosion.

Without saying anything else Shepard beckons us to follow and we slowly move on to the staircase. Goddamn, this is unnerving. I know they are there, but I can't see them anywhere. I'm right behind Shepard, aiming my rifle at the ceiling and the upper floors, since I know that's where the hoppers should be. Unfortunately, I'm completely caught by surprise when a hopper lands on the railing of the floor above us and his 'eye' starts to glow bright red. Luckily, Shepard reacts quicker than everyone else. She's quickly engulfed by biotics and the hopper suddenly found itself harmlessly floating, unable to do anything harmful to us.

I don't need any orders to know that I should shoot it now. I quickly take aim and pepper the thing with mass accelerator rounds. It squirms around for a second before it slacks and resumes it's aimless floating. Before I know it, another pair of hoppers show up and when I try to aim at one of them, they start jumping around. I follow the thing and open fire but it already jumps away before I can score a hit. Damn, why can't they stop move for one second? "Use biotics on these things!" Shepard barks out.

Well, it's the best tactic against these. Damn, this is a bit of an overkill! Shepard, Kaidan, Wrex and Liara all glow blue with biotics and the hoppers freeze in mid air. While we opened fire at one of them, Wrex slammed the one he 'caught' into the floor with enough force to create a few cracks.

Okay... this is it, I guess. "Perimeter secure," Garrus needlessly announces and we continue moving on. We still keep our weapons out, which is a wise thing to do as far as I'm concerned, even though I know what's up ahead. For all I know, things might have changed drastically with our team being so big. They just might send even more geth against us!

We finally reach the top of the stairs and carefully move through the corridor and once we turn around the corner, we're greeted by a makeshift barricade and weapons aimed at us. Thankfully, they quickly lower their weapons once they see we're not geth. "Go to Fai Dan. He's waiting for you," one of the colonists says before turning his attention back to the entrance.

Well, you didn't have to say it, since we're already going to him anyway. Still, Shepard gives him a nod and leads us into the colony in search of Fai Dan. As we walk through the colony a somewhat awful truth is revealed to me. The game was limited to game mechanics and codes but this... is not. What I'm seeing here is definitely worse. Much worse. Everyone looks half dead and I'm not really sure if it's the Thorian or just exhaustion. Everyone looks as if they're about to drop unconscious if I poke at them or something. A couple of colonists are simply leaning on one of the buildings, fast asleep. A lot of the people around here have various injuries, but nothing overly life-threatening. The most serious thing I saw so far is a guy with half of his head covered in bandages, with red stains on several spots.

The most stunning thing is their reaction to us, or rather, the lack of it. They dont even look at us as we pass them by. It's as if we barely exist. They acknowledge that we're there, but other than that... nothing. They look utterly hopeless. I'm pretty sure the Thorian is responsible, which gives me more incentive to kill the bloody abomination.

We finally reach the other side of the colony, where we spot Fai Dan speaking with that... rude woman. I can't remember her name. Not that it matters anyway. As our relatively large group approaches them, Fai Dan turns around to face us and shows us the first smile I've seen since we arrived.

"Oh, Commander! I'm glad they finally sent somebody to help us," he says, sounding incredibly relieved.

"You're a bit late, aren't you?" the woman interrupts, sounding very bitter.

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan snaps, shutting her up. Oh, so that's her name. Well, I can't blame her for being bitter. Her home was attacked and it took ages for the Alliance to do something about it. Wow, now I kinda feel guilty. "I'm sorry Commander, everyone's on edge since-" he stops and looks at the gate. We can all hear the mechanical noises the geth make and we already know what's coming.

"Watch out!" Arcelia shouts as she runs over to cover. "We've got geth in the tower!"

Fai Dan whips out his pistol and moves back. "Protect the heart of the colony!" he shouts over to the other guards.

That's our cue, I guess. We all take out our weapons and get ready to fight. To my shock, Shepard simply rushes forward, glowing blue with biotics. The trio of geth that opened fire at her are completely unprepared for the biotic shockwave that Shepard unleashes at them. The biotic wave sends them crashing against the wall, where they are quickly gunned down by the rest of the team. A couple of geth run down the stairs and one of them aims at Shepard but before it can pull the trigger, a sniper round penetrates it's head and sends it down. The second geth tries to fight back but Shepard guns it down with automatic fire.

Holy shit! I didn't even manage to shoot once! We work _fast_! We quickly follow Shepard up the stairs, where we spot a colonist pinned down by geth. Shepard whips out her arm and I manage to see something fly through the air. Before I can figure out what the hell she did a loud explosion engulfs the doorway. Oh, she threw a grenade! I don't get much time to think since we still have geth to deal with. Okay, since I have an assault rifle I'm more suited to clearing out doors. I move out to the open and hold down the trigger. The automatic fire knocks back the geth for a second, which probably saved me from return fire. After another second the geth finally falls down and I turn my aim to the second geth that just came around the corner. Before I can open fire, Shepard rushes past me, once again covered in biotics, but this time, her fist is covered in a bright blue glow. She runs up to the geth, who manages to fire a short burst which was stopped by the Commander's shields, and slams her biotic covered fist into the geth's head.

The result is simply glorious. One second Shepard slams a biotic punch into the geth's head, the next second the geth's head simply explodes violently. The rest of the geth's body is sent flying away, head over heels. I find myself rooted in place, staring at Shepard in pure amazement. That... was fucking awesome. Oh, by the nine hells, did I just image how it would look if she did the same to an organic? Ugh, that would be freaking disgusting.

Another geth runs out from around the corner but it quickly silenced by a well placed shot from Garrus. Damn, Garrus is freaking accurate! The only time I'm aware of him is when a geth's head suddenly explodes.

Okay, everyone's moving on and I better catch up! I run beside Kaidan as we finally get to the big room with the dropship. I see more than enough geth to shoot at and I guess everyone else got the same idea since as soon as I raise my weapon the room erupts into chaos. I run over to cover and duck behind it. Garrus quickly joins me and gets his sniper rifle ready for action. Alright, I'm teaming up with Garrus! We stand up at the same time and I pick a geth on the other side of the room. Okay, the range is a bit inconvenient for me but I think I can do this. I line up the shot and start firing in short bursts. Most of the shots miss, much to my anger, but I do manage to score a few hits. However, this drew it's attention to me and forces me to duck again. I wait a few seconds until the rounds stop flying over my head and stand up again. The geth, much to my pleasure, moved closer to me which worked wonders on my accuracy. Three bursts later and the geth finally drops down.

There is a loud rumble above us and not a moment later, geth drop down into the room from the dropship. I have to wonder why they practically shoot them down at such velocities, but I don't have much time to think about it. I pick one of the fresh geth and start firing at it, managing to get rid of it's shields in a couple of bursts and I'm about to finish it off when a sniper round penetrates the geth's head. "Goddammit!" I loudly curse, not bothering to even look since it's obvious Garrus is responsible.

"Too slow!" Garrus shouts back over the gunfire.

Damn kill-stealing bastard. I reach for my omni-tool and load up an Overload. Now I need a target... I settle on one who was trying to flank Shepard. The overload causes the geth to spasm in place and is quickly finished by a biotic throw from Liara, which sends the geth into the wall with enough force to break a few pieces off.

And just like that, as quickly as it started, it was suddenly over. The dropship above us hums loudly before it slowly flies out of sight. We just stand there for a few seconds, just in case we're going to be attacked again but once it's clear there are no more geth around we finally relax. "Looks like we're done here," Kaidan says. "We need to find out where the geth are coming from," he suggests.

"We probably should," Shepard agrees. "We should go to Fai Dan first, tell him he's out of danger for now," she adds and with that we move back to the colony.

* * *

><p>We get back to the colony much quicker on the way back and Fai Dan genuinly seems happy that we're here. Sadly I can't say the same about the others, though I do notice that the mood is lighter now. They don't seem to be half dead anymore, probably because we gave them some extra time to rest.<p>

Fai Dan quickly gives us the whole story, as much as he knows at least, which gives us our next objective: the ExoGeni headquarters where the geth are holed up. At that point Shepard asks if we could help the colony in any way. Ooh, we're doing the side-quests here too! After Faid Dan explains what kind of problems they have Shepard turns to us and orders us to basically ask around and see if we can help.

I gladly oblige and considering I know who to talk with, this should be relatively easy. When I talking with the woman who handles the water problems, much to my surprise I see Ashley walking into the colony in full gear. "Hey, what are you doing here?" I ask her with some surprise.

Ashley takes a double look at me, seemingly surprised by something. Oh! She hadn't seen my helmet yet! This explains why she's giving this odd look. "Nice new look," she remarks with a small smirk. "Shepard called me in, said the colony might need some back up," she explains.

I nod in understanding. "They do need help. Most of them seem halfway to unconsciousness or halfway dead. I don't think they'll hold very long without reinforcements or some rest," I say. "Considering they can't get much rest, reinforcements is the only thing that can save them."

Ashley gives the place a look, her gaze stopping on the faces of the people. "I can see that..." she mutters. Hm, I think I spoke with almost all the needed people I think it's time to head back to Shepard.

We find her talking to one of the colonists, though I note that he's dressed differently. Hm, I think he's that ExoGeni guy who wants her to retrieve some files from his computer. I might be wrong though. Shepard turns to us and spots Ashley. "You're here, good," she says with a small smile and then looks at me. "Okay, what do they need?"

"Let's see. There are still some geth in the tunnels and they want us to clear them out. We need to restore their water supply, which we can do from the tunnels. They also need food and to restore their power supply. Not sure about the power but I heard there are some varren in the tunnels so we got the food covered," I list out, hoping I didn't forget anything.

Ashley whistles at that. "Do they need us to wipe their asses and tell them bedtime stories too?" Ash asks aloud.

I can't help but snicker loudly at that. She makes a fine point though. We don't actually have to do any of this. We came here to kill the geth, thus help the colony, not to solve every freaking problem that popped up. Shepard frowns and gives Ash a pointed look, though I do see that it's rather halfhearted. "Don't be like that. We came here to help so we might as well do it. Besides, I expected something like this, which is why I brought all of you here." Oh? now this is interesting. I wondered why she decided to bring the whole ground team with her. "Alex and Wrex will go to the tunnels and deal with whatever they find in there. You will stay here and make sure the colony stays alive while the rest of us will go to the ExoGeni HQ to deal with the geth there."

Wait, what? "We're not coming with you?" I can't help but ask.

"No. It will be faster this way. Once you deal with the tunnels, help Ashley and wait until we return," was the simple instruction. "Don't worry. Wrex will keep you alive down there," she reassures me when she sees my expression.

I'm not worried about that. Wrex by himself can handle everything down there. I just expected that I'll be on all the important missions and now I realize that it's not the case. I know I should've expected something like this, since Shepard doesn't really need me on every single mission but the fact that she brought me here so I could keep the colony safe instead of going with her to deal with geth makes me feel somewhat... left out. It's silly, but it's what I feel. Still, I guess I'll do what she wants me to. At least I can still help. It's way better than sitting on the ship and wait until she returns.

"I should go," Shepard says. "the other are waiting for me and I want to hurry this up in case the geth launch another attack at the colony," and with that Shepard walks away, leaving me and Ashley alone.

"What's with the long face?" Ashley asks after a moment of silence.

Damn, she probably noticed that I'm not exactly in high spirits at the moment. "Well, it's a bit silly, but I wanted to go with Shepard," I finally say. Man, this is awkward.

"Oh, I see," she slowly says. "Well, get used to it. I want to go with Shepard too, but you can't always get what you want. Sometimes your orders are not the most fun thing to do. Welcome to military life."

"That's true... though it doesn't mean I can't be disappointed about it. Still, this beats sitting on the Normandy and just waiting," I say, finding some comfort in that fact.

"At least you're going to have fun with the krogan. I have to sit on my ass here and make sure these guys survive. You have the better assignment," she says with a frown, giving the colony another look.

Hey, that reminds me of something important. "By the way..." I start, lowering my voice nearly to a whisper. I don't want anyone to hear about this. "be careful around these guys."

Ash raises an eyebrow and looks at me with confusion written on her face. "Why?" she asks in a near whisper.

"I'm not sure, but I think there's something wrong with these colonists," I explain. "Seriously, they're not acting normal. It's not exhaustion. I've talked with some of them and most of them just monotonously say that I should talk with Fai Dan or they just ignored me as if I'm not here," I list all the things I can say without sounding too suspicious. "Just look at them. The way they look at you as if... as if they're not entirely there."

Ashley does exactly that. She looks around for nearly a full minute before she finally turns her attention back to me and I can see that she looks thoughtful and somewhat concerned. "I can see what you mean..." she quietly agrees.

"This isn't my imagination, that's for sure. There's something going on here that we don't know about," well, I do know about it, but the rest of you don't. "So... seriously, be careful."

"Aww, you're worried about me," she says with that annoying smirk again.

"Considering that until we come back you're going to be surrounded by twenty-something armed colonists? Yeah, I'm a bit worried. We don't want them to kill you or worse, them kidnapping you and... uh... sacrificing you to some space Cthulhu or something," as soon as the words come out of my mouth a let out an incredible mental groan. By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the abyss, why the fuck am I foreshadowing things?

This gets a chuckle out of her. "Don't worry about me. I'm tougher than I look," she assures me with that cocky smirk of hers. "I think you should go now. I don't think you'd want to keep Wrex waiting for too long," she suggests, which makes me groan.

"Shit. He's probably pissed off by now," I say to myself. "Yeah, I'll be going now and just do as I said!" I say as I start running.

I make it to the tunnel entrance in record speed and I spot Wrex standing by the barricade, looking to be extremely annoyed.

"About damn time," he says as I come to stop in front of him. "The colony isn't big, did you get lost?"

"Sorry. I was giving Ash the update about the situation," I explain quickly. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long."

"Luckily for you, you didn't," he states. Okay, Wrex is unusually talkative today. "Come on, I want to kill something," and with that he walks into the tower. I stand there for a moment, honestly a bit stunned, before I quickly move to catch up with him.

Oh, this is _definitely_ going to be fun.

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! The first part of Feros is over! The new helmet is revealed (Aye, not very original but screw that, I love skulls!) and you can guess how the next chapter will go! So... yeah, what else can I say? It was fun writing this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed reading it. Now, I think I'll move on to my relatively regular ME3 rants...<strong>

**Dont get me wrong, ME3 is an awesome game but the ending simply sucks. It's pure shit. Now, as I said on Friday, they were supposed to reveal something 'big and amazing' but somewhere deep inside, we already knew that it was going to be shitty. I personally go along with the theory that EA decided everything that had to do with ME3's ending... that Bioware had a magnificent and fabulous ending for us, but EA decided against it because the ending that we have now is more "open ended" for future games they could sell. Considering EA was voted as the Worst Company of America? (seriously, they were) Bioware are simply unlucky because they basically work for the worst company in america. So yeah, most probably their EA Overlords are at fault for the shitty ending we got.  
><strong>

**Now, about this Extended Cut DLC we're going to get at some point? Yeah, don't get too excited about it. They're just going to add some new cutscenes to the ending but they're not going to change a thing. Basically... they're going to add sprinkles to the piece of shit that is the ending. And what do we get? A piece of shit with sprinkles on top. It's still a fucking piece of shit. With sprinkles.  
><strong>

**Basically saying, they're releasing a DLC that will explain all the numerous plotholes, all the confusing stuff and pure stupidity that we witnessed in the end of ME3. Dumbing it down... it's the same as saying that we just didnt get it. That we simply didnt understand the ending. And they're constantly throwing around words like 'Artistic vision' and other stuff but there is NO artistic vision in the endings! There's just shitty writing! We don't understand how great and amazing the ending is, so they're releasing a DLC to explain it to us and give us some 'closure'.**

**And you know what's worse? It probably means that the indoctrination theory is WRONG! Shepard doesnt wake up after the 'shitty' ending to continue the fight against the Reapers. It actually happened! This personally breaks my heart. It pretty much means that we simply gave Bioware too much credit. The fans pretty much came up with a much better ending than Bioware ever could on their best day (considering what we got from them in the first place) and that tells a lot about Bioware. When the fans can come up with something better... you're clearly doing something wrong... or half-assed. If the indoctrination theory would've been true... I would gladly say that Bioware are freaking geniuses and that they accomplished the biggest trolling in the world and did something no other ever did. Bioware could've used it and come out on top with one of the greatest moments in gaming history... but they decided to go with the extended cut DLC and miss out on the biggest opportunity to create the most controversial ending in gaming history. The Indoctrination Theory is made from pure genius and if bioware doesnt acknowledge it... what does that make them?  
><strong>

**Currently Bioware is in 'Damage Control' mode, with the free DLC they're released this week, which most of you probably already have, and the fact that they're releasing the extended cut in a few months is probably in the hopes that we might just... forget why we were pissed in the first place. I think it's a weak attempt to calm us down from the anger and the disappointment we experience whenever we remember the ending. Whoever thinks the fans won in this struggle is clearly mistaken. They didnt change the ending, they just add some cutscenes that should clarify some glaring plotholes but overall, nothing has changed. The ending is still shit. There is still the unexplained space magic. The Starchild is still there, the galaxy is still destroyed (from what we were shown in Arrival DLC, when a mass relay is destroyed, the whole friggin' cluster is destroyed along with it in a massive explosion) and the ending is still a pure disappointment. They didnt get rid of the problem, they just coated the surface with pink paint to hide the problem itself. I dunno, maybe the extended cut will make the ending slightly better but I'm tired of hoping for the best, pretty much because I know that the ending will still be pure shit and that nothing has changed.**

**Pfft... Didn't understand their '_artistic vision_'... fucking idiots.  
><strong>

**So yeah... I finally got that out of my system. Wanted to say that since Friday and only now got the opportunity. Thanks for listening (reading) to my rambling and ranting. I don't know whether you agree with me or not, but it's just what I'm seeing here. So... yep, thank you for reading the story and I'm very glad you enjoyed it so far! I'm really flattered with all the good stuff you say about it and once again, thank you for the support! feel free to tell me what you think about. Until next time.**

**Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	25. Chapter 25

**Hello! I am back, and once again with a new chapter! Yep, we have the tunnels assignments taken care of in this chapter. So before you start reading, I have to say that I'm not sure when the next chapter is going to be finished. I really need to start doing my assignments and start getting ready for my VERY important exams, which would happen in about a month. Failing those will leave me... well, in deep shit. No Uni, and I'll have to wait another year until I could take them again. So yeah, I'm not keen of failing those and I really have to get ready for them. I'll attempt to squeeze in a few writing hours here and there but again, I'm not really sure when I'll finish it. Maybe next week, maybe the one after that. I'll see what I can do. :P**

**Without anymore delays, here is the new chapter!**

* * *

><p>Hm, I think I'm a bit nervous here. Sure, Wrex is with me, who is probably the closest thing to an organic walking tank in the galaxy, but from what I can recall, this is not a walk in the park. I don't really remember this part of the mission that well, but I think there were quite a lot of geth down here. Well, for the good of the colony I guess I'll have to suck it up and just do the damn assignment.<p>

We easily dealt with the geth we encountered on the way down. With some biotics from Wrex, dealing with the hoppers was extremely easy.

"Into the howling dark we go..." I mutter to myself as we descend the final staircase. Sounding awesome might make me less nervous anyway.

Wrex grunts in reply. "Not that dark in here," he remarks when we finally open the door and walk into the tunnels. They're exactly as I remember them from the game. Catwalks on the edges and a bottomless abyss in the middle. I can't help but wonder what's down there anyway. Does it have a bottom? I really don't want to check out how far the bottom is anyway.

"I was speaking figuratively," I say quietly as we cross the bridge. "we have no idea what's down here," I add, though it's a blatant lie. I just don't _remember_ how many of the geth are down here, that's all.

"Doesn't matter," Wrex responds, making his point by shouldering his assault rifle. "we'll kill them anyway."

This gets me to crack a smile. Wrex, the voice of confidence in this team. Makes me glad he's here now. We walk over to the small passageway, and spot several geth milling about. Oh, here we go now. I raise my rifle and open fire, opting to use full auto for this occasion. The closest geth falls down from my hail of fire and this catches the attention of the other geth, making them round on us. I aim at my next target and open fire again, sending a quick glance to the corner of my HUD to check how many more shots I have left until my weapon overheats. I stop firing right before my weapon overheats and run over to the large concrete block that's lying around.

Wrex wrapped himself in biotics and sent out a wide biotic shockwave. Since the corridor didn't have much room to maneuver, the geth couldn't do anything other than brace themselves. The closest two geth were sent flying off their feet but the ones behind them were just pushed back a step or two. Still, we had two downed target and I feel that I can't miss the opportunity to use that, something which Wrex surely wasn't going to do. I quickly join Wrex and we quickly finish the two downed geth. As soon as they were filled with enough holes we turn our attention to the other four remaining. Unfortunately, one of them activates one of their geth barriers, which the rest quickly started using as cover. Well, it wont be there for long, that's for sure.

Wrex simply switches his rifle for his shotgun. I think about questioning his tactic but before I can, Wrex wraps himself with a biotic barrier and charges forward. Halfway to the geth barrier Wrex fires twice. The first shot nearly destroys the barrier but the second one completely annihilates it, leaving the geth out in the open, facing a charging krogan battlemaster. The odds are a bit unfair in my opinion. The closest geth was hit the hardest. Before it could raise it's rifle to defend itself Wrex backhands it away as if it was a measly fly. The geth behind the first one received a vicious headbutt from the krogan and couple with Wrex's running momentum, the force of the hit was enough to crush the synthetic's flashlight head into small bits. The remaining two geth started shooting but Wrex's barriers soaked the damage as if it was nothing. From there, much to my surprise, Wrex released the biotic barrier with... explosive results. More accurately, a biotic shockwave that knocked the two geth off their feet. Almost casually, as if it was an everyday occurrence, Wrex calmly aims his shotgun at their heads and fires once at each one.

I'm still standing in the same place, looking at the krogan with some amount of awe. That was freaking awesome, no doubt about it. Won't even argue. Wrex slowly turns to look at me and gives me a satisfied, and greatly pleased look which snaps me out of my stupor.

"Shit..." I mutter as I glance at the downed geth bodies. We annihilated them! This is turning out much, much better than I expected it would. Okay... back to the task at hand. I look around and spot what I'm looking for. "Hold up," I announce. "Found one of the water valves..."

I walk over to the terminal thing and activate it. Okay... let's see... I have no idea what I'm doing, but I think I can guess what to do and be done with it. Valve control... huh, this looks like what I'm looking for. Okay, 'Open valve'... I press this button and... oh! Here we go! And... silence. I look around, wondering if I actually did anything. Wrex does the same on the other end of the corridor but after several seconds where nothing happened, I look at the valve again. It's open... and I'm simply baffled. I have no idea what I'm doing

"Another one here," Wrex says gruffly, jerking his head in the direction of the second valve. "Doesn't look like it's on yet," oh, that explains it! There are three valves and without all of them being on, nothing will happen. I quickly jog over to the second valve and repeat the process. Nothing happens, again, but this time I actually know what I need to do so I don't let it bother me.

"Alright, let's go on," I say to Wrex, who starts walking off. At least he could wait for me... I quickly follow him out of the corridor. I make sure to stay away from the edge, even though there's a safety railing. There's a damn bottomless pit beneath us and I'm not risking it. Wrex pauses in front of a door and gives me a look. Hm, I don't remember where this leads, though I think it's the place where the varren are hanging out. I give him a shrug. "We might as well."

The door slides open and immediately we hear a weird... growling sound and an echoing, yet distant roar-like noise. Wrex huffs in annoyance in response. "Varren," he says with some distaste and moves into the room without giving me time to say or do anything.

Fuck, what the hell is he doing? I quickly follow him inside and as soon as we cross the threshold, we hear another of these roars, this time much closer. I turn around and I am greeted by a frighteningly large horde of varren running at us.

Wrex doesn't seem bothered by it, not in the slightest. He flares his biotics and a second later, nearly half of the varren mod are sent flying back, leaving a lot less varren to deal with. Sadly, the other ones will recover soon enough and we'll have to deal with them again. Shit, we better do this fast!

Wrex shoots once and a varren falls dead, sliding across the ground for several feet, carried by it's momentum. I shoulder my rifle and pick a varren – not that hard to do, considering their numbers – and start shooting. The varren survived nearly two seconds of constant fire before it dropped down and I pick another target. Another varren fell from a shotgun blast from Wrex. I shoot another second into a varren's face before it drops down and throughout all this, they are constantly getting closer and closer.

The rest of the varren recovered by now and resumed their blind charge at us. Apparently, they are not as dumb as I first thought they were because as I start shooting at one of them, they quickly split off in an attempt to flank us. The one I was aiming at quickly falls down from it's wounds but another one already replaced it. Since it was a lot closer, I don't even need to aim. I simply spray the thing with bullets until it finally falls down. Unfortunately, the third on catches me completely by surprise. When I spot it, I'm several seconds too late. It's already in mid-leap and heading straight at me. I do the only thing I can think off. I raise my arm in defense and the varren's jaws clamp down on it. Hard.

The rest of the varren's body hits me soon after and I'm knocked off my feet. The landing doesn't bother me much. I'm more annoyed and terrified of the fact I have a freaking varren on top of me. Much to my relief, the armor I'm wearing stops the varren's fangs from tearing into my arm but the pressure my poor forearm is currently feeling is goddamn painful. The varren starts violently jerking it's head around in an attempt to rip off my arm and I can't really do anything about it, since it caught the arm that held the rifle. To make it worse, it starts violently raking it's claws on me, probably in an attempt to tear me a new one.

"Fuuck!" I yell in panic as I try to find something to get this thing off of me. My hand goes down to the belt as I try to find something useful there, like my sidearm but to my horror, it's on the other side, right beneath the varren. Luckily, my hand lands on something else, a handle more in particular. I quickly pull out the knife and with an angry growl, drive the knife right into the varren's fish-like face.

The varren jerks a few times before it stops moving and the pressure on my forearm lessens. I sigh in relief as I look over at Wrex to see him finish off the last varren. I'm about to remove the dead varren off of me when I hear a much louder roar and when I look at the source I see the biggest, meaning varren I've ever seen. And it looks royally pissed.

Again, Wrex doesn't look bothered or impressed. I think he's actually bored. I wrench out my hand out of the dead varren's jaws with a grunt of pain and manage to aim the rifle from my position on the ground. When the alpha varren was halfway to us, it was suddenly engulfed by biotics and gently floated off the ground, still maintaining it's momentum. Well, not like it changes anything. I still open fire at the damn thing at the same time with Wrex.

The varren flails it's limbs wildly and roars each time it's hit by our combined fire. Three shotgun blasts later and who knows how much automatic fire from me and the thing still keeps moving. Even Wrex looks mildly surprised by that! The varren finally floats up to Wrex and I stop firing to avoid hitting Wrex. The krogan simply presses his shotgun to the varren's head and pulls the trigger.

Sadly, because the varren floated between me and Wrex, when he pulled the trigger it resulted with the varren's head violently exploding, sending chunks of it's head and skull spraying in all directions... mostly at me.

The disgusting mix of varren blood and brains nearly make me lose my stomach. I slowly wipe the blood off my visor to clear the view. "Goddammit! Wrex!" I cry out in anger and disgust. Fuck! Did he really have to do this! Oh, and now the bastard looks smug!

I angrily push the varren off of me and stand up to inspect the damage. The forearm piece is slightly cracked by thankfully not one of the fangs penetrate into my flesh. Still, it will probably leave quite a big bruise. I flex my arm to see if there's any other damage from all the violent jerks it's been through but thankfully, the only thing I feel is the dull pain from where the varren bit me. There are shallow scratches on my chest and some on my legs but it's just superficial so nothing to worry about. The worst is that I'm covered in bits of brain and lot's of varren blood. I try to send Wrex my most heated glare but sadly, my helmet blocks off most of it. He looks quite amused by the way things turned out.

"Now you look more impressive," he remarks, his mouth set in a suspicious position that reminds me of a smirk.

"Oh, shut up. The smell will probably never go away," I say angrily. "Fucking varren. I need a goddamn shotgun," I sigh.

"Don't forget this moment. You survived a whole pack of them attacking you. Not many can say the same thing," he says with something that sounded almost like respect. "Though the last one was sloppy. You should've dodged instead."

What are you, a freaking contest judge? I don't really need his evaluation to know I screwed up with the last varren. Next time, hopefully there wont be a next time, I'll make sure to watch my flanks more carefully. Damn, I hope I won't have to do this ever again. This was nerve wrecking. My heart is still pounding like a jackhammer! "Shit, you do this kind of thing often?"

Wrex chuckles at the question and kicks away the closest varren corpse. "I've lost count. Varren got boring after a while though," he says, sounding slightly sad and nostalgic. "Looks like we're done with one of their requests. They should have some food now," Wrex adds thoughtfully as he looks around at the numerous dead varren around us. Yeah, we completed the varren assignment! Great now we just need to do the rest of the stuff down here. Wrex starts walking away but I quickly remember another thing.

"Wait..." I start as I look around and spot the broke vehicle I'm looking for. "they need new power cells... I think this should have one or two," I say as I start walking up to the Mako-like vehicle. Wrex just shrugs and follows me.

As soon as I reach the vehicle I come across a major problem. Once again, I have no idea what I'm doing. "Uhm..." I slowly start. By the nine hells, this is so embarrassing! "where... where are the power cells in this thing?" I slowly ask, making sure not to look at Wrex.

The krogan huffs in annoyance and steps up to the front of the vehicle and tears off a portion of what appears to be the hood and looks inside with narrowed eyes. A few seconds later he reaches inside and pulls out a pair of small cylindrical object, which he tossed over to me. They were slightly larger than a soda-can and surprisingly heavier than they looked. I open one of my belt pouches that came with the armor and place them inside. "That's all of them?" I ask.

Wrex glances into the engine again. "Yeah. The rest are fried," he says. "Let's go already. There are more geth to kill," he adds gruffly.

"Yeah, let's head out," I agree. So far, everything is going great, save for the varren part. I don't really like them now. I think I'll have to drop by the shop who upgraded my armor and give them a nice, juicy bonus for the great job... at least when I have money again.

Alright. We have one more valve left. This should be easy.

* * *

><p>"Fuck! Why doesn't this thing go down!" I scream as I duck behind the block of concrete I use as cover. The missile that was fired at me impacted the block and shook the whole corridor and raised a large cloud of dust and dirt.<p>

Holy crap, I have no idea how many more shots can my cover handle. I definitely didn't have any indestructible cover anywhere around. I wait until my shields folly recharge, since I caught some stray bullets just a moment ago, and when they are back to 100% I lean out and start shooting at the geth destroyer again.

"I'd ask you the same thing!" Wrex shoots back, figuratively and shoots back, literally, at the destroyer. A moment later he apparently tires of this and sends a biotic push. The geth destroyer is sent back and lands with a heavy thud, for the fourth time.

I don't pay much attention to it mostly because I'm concentrating on that pesky geth sniper on the far end of the corridor. I wait until it shows it's glowing head and fire at short bursts again. I quickly discover that at this range I'm not very effective. While my new rifle is much more accurate, my aim still has lots of room for improvement. I fire and fire until I finally manage to catch the sniper in the shoulder, which sends it stumbling out of it's cover and into the open. Great, now's my chance! I fully stand up and continue firing in short bursts until the thing's shields finally collapse and nothing stops my bullets from piercing it's chest. The sniper fell down and I turn my attention back to the destroyer, which was slowly climbing back up.

The destroyer finally stood up... only to get dropped again by another biotic push from Wrex. I have no idea if geth are capable of emotions, but if they are, I'm willing to bet this destroyed is _really_ frustrated at the moment.

"Just shoot it!" I shout out in annoyance as I concentrate all my firepower on the giant robot. I didn't really need to shout it, really, since Wrex is already shooting everything he has at it. The destroyer managed to get up on one knee and just moments before it manages to stand up, one round manages to rip through it's armor and damage something important. The destroyer freezes in place and finally, after a long struggle, falls facedown to floor with a heavy thud. I sigh in relief and allow myself to relax. "_Finally!_" I say as I exchange a glance with Wrex and together we slowly approach the downed destroyer.

We stop in front of the downed geth, still having our weapons trained on it. Without saying anything Wrex put another shotgun blast into the thing's head. At my questioning look he simply shrugs. "It might be faking it."

Huh, that's... "Can geth fake death?" I ask with some confusion. They're machines so... maybe this destroyed went to sleep mode or something. I have no idea.

Wrex looks down at the destroyer and huffs. "It's definitely not faking it now," he concluded. Yeah, now it has a bigger hole in the head. I doubt anyone, save Saren could fake death with that particular condition.

We move past the dead geth and reach the third, and last, water valve. Okay, repeat the process here and... there! The sound of distant machinery echoes through the tunnels and I can hear water running through the pipes. Great! I think we're almost done down here.

Okay, let's move on! We cross the corridor and come out on the other side, where we're greeted by a crossroad. Either we got right or we... wait, who is this guy? "Huh, I wonder what he's doing down here," I remark. Wow, I... can't remember whether this was in the game or not. How weird is that?

"Probably some idiot," Wrex mutters. Well, maybe he's right, I dunno. Let's check it out.

"You don't want to go down there," he says as a greeting. Okay, if he's not going to say Hi like a normal person, neither will I. Actually, this is definitely a bad sign when people you meet greet you with a warning.

"Then what are you doing down here?" I shoot back. "In case you hadn't heard the loud gunfight we had, this place is crawling with geth," I explain, jerking my thumb over my shoulder in the direction where we left the geth.

"Nothing I should be... and anything I shouldn't," Okay if this isn't suspicious, I don't know what it is. I'm about to respond when suddenly he screams loudly in pain and falls to his knees. Holy fucking shit! This nearly gave me a heart attack! Even Wrex jumped back in surprise! The guy slowly stands up, panting and breathing heavily. "...that was a good one... very intense..."

Good one? The guy screamed as if a varren bit his balls off! "Uh... are you okay? That looked... painful," I slowly, and carefully ask. Damn, this guy is getting more and more familiar now.

"Just invoking the master's whip..." he breathed out. Oh! Now I remember him from the game! Okay, this settles it down. I guess I shouldn't be panicking or anything. "...helps reminds me I'm still alive. You're here for the geth, aren't you? You're not the only one interested in those... things."

"Uh, yeah, I just said that. Why? Someone else is after them?" I ask curiously. I'm feeling a bit weird that I'm the one doing the whole talking. I bet Wrex can be a great talker but he seems more than okay with letting me talk.

"Not looking _for_. Looking to get _rid of_. They are a thorn in the side of-" and here he screams again, making me jump back in surprise. Motherfucker! Stop doing that! "trying to get to the- aaarrgh!" and after that he starts... laughing?

_Ooookaaaaaay_. I'm very slowly taking a step back and Wrex actually mimics me, quite possibly as freaked out as me by this whole situation. "He's insane," he mutters darkly. I can disagree... but maybe Wrex is right. Maybe fighting this whole mind control thing actually drove him to insanity...

By Moradin's balls, if he starts asking me if he told met he definition of insanity, I'm shooting him.

"Uh... is there anyway I can help you or something?" I carefully ask. The guy might be insane but I'm not going to leave him like this. There might be geth still lurking about. You could never know.

"Help me? No. _No one_ can help me now. I'd rather... die... fighting!" he groans out, visibly struggling with every word.

"Fighting what?" I ask, more for Wrex's sake than mine. I know the whole story after all but Wrex doesn't! I think he'll be offended if he misses out on some important details.

"Not that kind of fight. It's like... running through a thorn bush," Ouch, I actually did that once, so I know the feeling. "the more you struggle..." he pauses there and looks behind us. "Time's up. Company's coming... ask Fai Dan! Ask him about- _aaargh!_" he shrieks one more time and collapses to his knees and frome there he just falls, completely unconscious.

I don't pay much attention to him. My mind is more preoccupied with what he said before collapsing. We whirl around and see two geth standing behind us, weapons already aimed at us. "Move!" Wrex bellows as he flares his biotics. No need to tell me twice. I jump out of the way as Wrex swipes his arm in a cutting motion and when I look, I see one of the geth flying away, over the railing and down to his doom. The second geth manages to let out several shots but the krogan's shields took it would any problems. We both fire at it simultaneously and within a couple of seconds the geth falls down, littered with holes.

I sigh in relief. "Never thought geth could be sneaky," I say and look back at the now-unconscious guy. "Uh, should we do something with him?"

Wrex shrugs nonchalantly. "You should just shoot him, take him out of his misery. He clearly lost it."

What? Shit, how can he even suggest that? "Nah, no way! I'm not shooting a defenseless civilian!" I say, a bit angrily. "Let's... just leave him here."

"Whatever. I don't really care either way. He'll probably get himself killed later anyway," he says with a roll of his blood-red eyes and starts walking away. I send the unconscious man one last look before I follow.

We move on and towards the second bridge that leads to the last available door here. Hm... I don't really remember this part well. I think there was... a krogan in there with some geth. Meh, we can handle it! We cross the bridge and slowly approach the door. Wrex points to the opposite side of the door and I quickly move to take that position. As we approach the doors slides open and I'm greeted by a narrow corridor with a single geth in the middle of it. Huh... wait a second. I look up and spot two geth there, aiming their long rifles at us. Oh shit! "Snipers!" I bark as I cross the threshold and hide behind the large concrete block. A flying geth drone descends on us but before I can do anything about it, it blows up via a shotgun blast from Wrex. That takes care of this, at least.

Okay... no need to get too nervous here. They just have lethal weapons that would blow up my head like watermelon. No biggie. Fuck, I need to shoot them. I ready my rifle and lean out of cover. As soon as I do it, one of the snipers immediately aims at me while the other one probably concentrated on Wrex. The sniper is not very far from me, so I think I can be quite accurate from this range. I hold down the trigger, glad the the first salvo is as accurate as possible. The first shots hit the geth in the chest, which screws up it's aim, which is exactly what I'm after. I keep holding down the trigger until the geth finally falls and I turn my attention to the second one. A shotgun blast catches it in the chest, which surprises me since shotguns are not that accurate and Wrex is a way behind me. Still, doesn't really matter. I open fire and within a couple of seconds the geth finally falls.

I turn my attention back at the corridor where I see the lone geth hiding behind his glowing geth barrier. Pfft, what an idiot. I hold down the trigger in fully automatic fire and after several seconds the barrier collapses and leaves the lone geth in the open, which Wrex took advantage of. The geth was wrapped in biotics and shot up into the ceiling with enough force to shatter it's head.

Okay... so far it's suspiciously quiet. I remember that there was a krogan here but so far, I can't see it, which is really bad in my opinion, considering it's a krogan! Wrex quickly moves into the corridor and as silently as we can, we move further into it. Well, I tried to be silent but Wrex didn't really bother as far as I'm concerned. His footsteps loudly echoed through the empty corridor and doubtlessly alerted everyone in range... who hadn't heard the gunshots just moments ago. _Yeah_, maybe I'm overthinking stuff.

Halfway to the other side we're greeted by an outraged roar and a krogan rushes out from the room, quickly followed by anothe. Oh, fuck! That's two krogan! Serious miscalculation here! I pull the trigger and blindly fire into the rushing krogan, who seemingly just ignores all the rounds I'm putting into him. Wrex quickly joins in, his shotgun blasting loudly. I'm starting to move back but Wrex just stands in place, shooting the approaching krogan with a glare. Shit, what is he thinking? I'm still holding down the trigger and finally, just several meters away from us the krogan finally collapses and falls down with a thud. Sadly, there's no time for celebration because we still have a second krogan to deal with, who is almost upon us by now. I don't even bother aiming. I just start firing but after barely a second of constant fire my rifle just stops. Oh, god. I look down to see some steam rising from it and my HUD blaring warnings at me, notifying me that my weapon has overheated. Thanks a lot! As fast as I can I place the rifle on my back and draw my pistol. I start wildly firing but it just feels as though I'm shooting a brick wall... a brick wall that happens to be running at me. Shit, the krogan is glaring at me and I can see that he's aiming at _me_. By the nine hells, I'm about to become pancake.

Wrex flares his biotics and the krogan floats up and slams headfirst into the concrete overpass above us. Wrex isn't done there, thankfully. His biotics flare even brighter and a moment later the poor krogan is slammed headfirst into the floor. I'm standing in place, staring at the biotic display with some awe while Wrex unloads several rounds into the first krogan's head and then the second's, to make sure they're dead probably. Wow. Just... _wow_. Biotics are freaking awesome. No doubt about it.

We're about to move on when much to my surprise, _another_ krogan rushes out! What the hell? How many of them are there anyway? And why did they wait to rush us one by one? Wrex seems more annoyed than worried but to my shock, he does the thing. With a short growl he rushes forward on collision course with the enemy krogan. What the hell is he doing?

They're gradually approaching closer to eachother. Two giants charging eachother. One calm and the other roaring in rage. Just as they were about to collide, Wrex uses his trump card. He flares his biotics and wraps himself with the purple-blue light just before collision and with a grunt, he gives the enemy krogan a vicious headbutt. There is a loud crack and a second later the krogan falls down in a heap and didn't move again.

At this moment my mouth doubtlessly hangs open. If it was physically possible, I think my lower jaw would be on the floor by now. Wrex headbutted a krogan to death. Correction, he gave the krogan a _biotic headbutt_. I'm... speechless. Wrex shakes his head a few times and blinks, maybe to clear his vision or something. He does look a bit disoriented at the moment. Shit... this was simply brutal. "Uh... krogan biotics are... rare, right?" I ask quietly. If I'll have to fight a biotic krogan sometime in the future... that will be bad. Really bad.

Wrex grunts as he turns around to face me. "Very rare," he answers.

I just sigh in relief at that. That's a very good thing to know. Regular krogan are hard enough to deal with anyway, having them through singularities at me will be overkill. I sigh again and calm my nerves down, glancing at the three dead krogan and then at my pistol. I wasn't really effective against them, not as much as Wrex anyway. My weapons simply lacked the force behind them to actually push a krogan back. "Fuck. I need a shotgun," I mutter to myself.

Wrex simply bends down and picks up the fallen krogan's shotgun and tosses it over to me. I quickly catch it, fumbling with it a bit before I manage to hold it properly, without the barrel pointing at me. Huh, it's a bit heavier than I expected but not _that_ heavy. I expected it to weight less though, judging by it's size. I inspect it a bit more, just to make sure it's _not_ that claymore shotgun, because that shotgun would break my arms, according to the codex in the second game, but I quickly calm down when I'm assured it's not that shotgun. I don't really remember how that one even looks...

"You should stop whining and pick up a weapon, if you want it," Wrex remarks, making a fine points. This get's me to blink in confusion and look at the dead bodies around us and from there at the weapons laying about. Wow, I wonder just why I hadn't thought of that. There are no game mechanics to stop me from doing this. Kinda weird that I didn't think of it before now.

"Yeah..." I say awkwardly. "Let's go," I add, walking further down the corridor without waiting for Wrex. The krogan let's out a low chuckle but I ignore him. Yeah, I'm probably looking like an idiot right now. Hopefully he won't mention this ever again.

We finally enter the final room. It's completely empty save for some kind of device on the far corner of the room. I don't really have a clue what the device actually does, but I remember destroying it in the game. "Looks like some sort of transmitter..." Wrex supplies.

"Transmitter or not, they're not going to need it now anyway," I say with a smirk as I bring up my policed shotgun. I hold it by my hip, because it ultimately looks a lot cooler this way, and aim it to the best of my ability. I pull the trigger and...

Holy shit! The recoil is _waaay_ worse than I thought it would be! As I fire the shotgun, the recoil actually forces me a half-step back. The transmitter sparks for a second or two before it shuts off. Shit, the recoil is monstrous compared to the pistol. I need some practice with it, that's for sure. Maybe there's a special way you fire a shotgun or something? I glance at Wrex, who looks incredibly amused. Okay, I'm definitely not asking help from him. Ash would probably be more helpful about it... with less laughs involved.

"Okay, I think we're done here!" I announce loudly. Maybe this will get his attention away from my lame recoil handling.

"That we are," Wrex agrees. "Let's get out of here. I've had enough of these tunnels," he grumbles and starts heading back to the way we came from.

Well, he couldn't put it in any way better than I can. I'm still a bit disappointed that I didn't get to go with Shepard. While it was intense, clearing these tunnels was simply tiresome, not to mention I'm a bit pissed that Wrex did most of the work. It's kinda hard to pull my weight when I'm working with people like Wrex, who pretty much define the meaning of one-man-army. I don't have any biotics or any special skills so I have to work twice as hard to pull my weight. Then again, neither does Ash. She's a simple soldier and while she does have much more training that I have, she's still better than me in combat as far as I know.

Which reminds me... I wonder how Ash is doing. Hopefully she didn't get into too much trouble. Well, soon enough we'll find out. It wont take us long to get back to the colony. I place the shotgun onto it's new place on my lower back and take out my assault rifle. If I'm going to see combat, I'll use something I'm actually familiar with, for now at least. Hopefully Shepard will get back soon. I'm kinda nervous that I'm going to a place that's right above the thorian's lair, not to mention that it's swarming with it's thralls.

Either way, things are going to be intense, that's for sure.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, you probably noticed that I decided to end the chapter here. Don't you worry! The colony and the Thorian will be dealt with in the next chapter, so until then, you'll have to wait! Simple as that! At least it's not a cliffhanger, so take comfort in that. :P<br>**

**So... yeah, maybe I'll put another rant here. Don't worry, it's shorter! A friend asked me: "Dude, why do you hate the ending so much? It's just a lame ending!" Well... I can easily answer that, in case anyone of you actually had that unasked question.  
><strong>

**Yes, the journey is as important as the ending but... it's not the case here. During the journey you do stuff that are associated with journeys. You complete tasks, get to know your companions, get close to them, accomplish other stuff. There is character growth! In ME you CHANGE the fate of the galaxy. Saving the rachni or not, saving the council or not, helping out your teammates and getting to know them, retaking the quarian homeworld... all of that carries weight. You change the world you play in. And I'd expect this change to carry over al the way to the end. But... in the end we have, NOTHING we accomplished in the last two games, including the 3rd simple matters! What does it matter if I saved the council or I didnt if in the end, I still blow up the relays and die? Why should I care about saving the krogan if in the end, I blow up the mass relays and DIE?  
><strong>

**And this is where the problem is. All the things we did, all the changes we made to the galaxy, all the romances we did... all the countless hours we placed into the game with it's amazing and enthralling story... simply do not matter in the slightest, because in the end, they change nothing. Everything in the galaxy leads to the same conclusion, and this is simply insulting. It's about a promise BW made us. They promised us different endings, where all the choices we made in the last two games count, that they will CHANGE how the 3rd game plays out and ultimately, the ending itself. But in reality, we got nothing of what was promised to us. For all it matters, Shepard could just chill out in the Carribean islands, drinking a martini until the time to use the ass-pulled crucible and face the star-child (which is insulting since we can't pull a renegade interrupt and punch the brat in the face. We're expected to BELIEVE the bullshit he's spouting!) and end the game, since either way, it will have the same results, only less fun and engaging.**

**A friend of mine pulled out the theory that Bioware simply pulled out all their resources to Star Wars: The Old Republic and the ending of ME3 had to be rushed because lack of resources and time... because SW:TOR had more money-gaining potential. For all I know, it could possibly be true.  
><strong>

**So yeah, here you go. I'm pissed that Bioware lied to me, that everything I did in ALL the games barely mattered in the slightest and insulted that they act as if we don't understand how shitty the end was. Now they're going to explain us WHY it's utter shit, as if we couldnt understand before. Heh, looks like it came out quite long. Then again, I don't think I'll have anymore Bioware and ME3 rants, at least until BW does something stupid again.  
><strong>

****Oh, before I forget! SPOILERS: In case anyone of you actually got Tali to suicide... well, after that you get to see her face! (Yeah, you have to KILL TALI in order to FINALLY see her face). The only problem? It's a freaking picture from the internet that they got for free and without any effort whatsoever. How lazy is THAT? Not to mention insulting. So yeah, all you Tali fans... you just got Bioware'd. You got another epic middle finger from them! Yay!****

**Yep, for now I'm done (for real) with the rants and I'm quite spent out and I have nothing more to say! Again, I'm not sure when I'll finish the next chapter, but I'll work on it if I can have any time for it. So yeah, until next time... Delvaro out.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Oh, yeaaaaaaaaaaaah! I am finally back! First of all, if any of you are engineers, or whoever else might work with blueprints, I simply MUST shake your hand (figuratively, since I'm in another country). Making blueprints is _hard_. It took me the better part of last week to finish the blue print I need for my diploma work but damn, I've had my expectations but I didn't think it'd be that hard.**

**But yeah, I'm finally back! It took me eons to finish this chapter, I know, and I must admit that it was rather hard to finish it so soon either. At least one good thing came out of this. This is the longest chapter I've wrote so far!**

**Oh, before I forget! A new story came out a while ago, An Exile's Effect by Dzugh. Give it a read! I think that so far the story is quite original and more than enjoyable! If you like ME SI's, I think you'll enjoy this story!**

**Yeah, back to the chapter now! Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"I'm telling you, something's up with the colonists," I say as we make our way to the colony. I have to admit that all this silence is annoying me. Freaking awkward if I must say. I know that Wrex is not so talkative but when he does talk, it's usually something worth listening to. I guess I want his input.<p>

Sadly, Wrex doesn't want to play his part in the conversation and simply remains silent.

"You know… feel free to participate in the conversation. It's a two way thing by the way," I add flippantly. This finally gets the reaction I'm looking for. Sort of. Wrex turns one glaring eye at me but still remains silent. Well, at least he's paying attention. "They're acting all weird and suspicious, not to mention the guy we left down there. Utterly batshit insane," I elaborate.

Wrex grunts in annoyance before he speaks. "Does it matter? Insane or not, I'm shooting them if they do anything stupid," he says, his tone telling me he was completely serious.

Oh, shit! They will attack us later on and I think that killing them is the last thing they need. They're not even in control of themselves. Damn, makes me wonder if they're actually aware of it. The guy in the tunnel was aware of the thing but the colonists? Fuck, this is both terrifying and maddening. "Uh, I doubt Shepard will appreciate you killing harmless colonists," I slowly say, fighting down the urge to snort at the 'harmless' part.

"Maybe. But if they're stupid enough to attack us, they're too stupid to live," he says with a shrug, as if it was simple as that.

"That's a bit harsh," I remark.

"Being stupid won't help you live long on Tuchanka."

"Well, this is not Tuchanka." I remind him. Shit, I definitely don't need Wrex killing the colonists now. What will I say to Shepard if he does start shooting? Well, I doubt Shepard will actually blame me or anything. It's not like I can actually stop him, even if I tried. I'm not stupid, or insane enough to try.

"It's not Tuchanka," he agrees and gives me a pointed look. "But the rule still applies."

I think there's another meaning to what he said, probably telling me that I shouldn't be stupid. Doesn't matter, really. I wasn't planning to anyway.

I'm about to say something else when the radio crackles loudly, managing to startle me. My ears are blasted by static noise and I see that even Wrex cringes for a moment, though he quickly regains control of his face. Okay... what do I do now? "Uh... I can't hear you. Who is it?" I ask.

There's no response. Just the annoyingly loud static. Huh, Wrex frowns at that. I guess it's not very common to get static blasted through the comm. Hm, I wonder if a raspy voice is going to hiss 'seven days!' at me now. I'll freak out, but we'll all laugh about it later.

"Shepard?" I try. Who else will try to contact me. "Somebody?" I try again but I still don't get a response. I look at Wrex, who seems... interested. I don't really know krogan facial expressions that well, but he does seems interested in whatever is happening. "Uhm, maybe something is jamming the signal?" I cautiously ask. I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about, but I can only guess.

Wrex hums in thought for a few seconds before responding. "Probably," he shrugs. "Let's get out of the tunnels and try again," he suggests.

Well, this course of action is better as any. We might as well go out and see what is up. I kinda doubt that a few concrete walls will stop a signal... I mean, it's been 170 years or so since my time and signals doubtlessly got better since then. So yeah, we're going outside!

For some reason I have a bad feeling about this.

* * *

><p>Yeah, when I get a bad feeling about something, I think it's about time I started actually paying attention to it. After all, usually whenever I feel bad about something, something bad usually occurs. Still, for some reason I ignore it. Maybe I'm an idiot, I dunno.<p>

As soon as the colony came into our sight we both tensed. Well, I did. Wrex just had a very noticeable frown on his face and he looks tense most of the time anyway. The thing that had me worried happened to be the unconscious guard that was lying on the ground right by the entrance.

Okay, I believe that my worries actually paid off... not that it's a good thing or anything. I raise my assault rifle and cautiously approach the downed guard. Wow, this place is rather freaky now, just for the fact that it's utterly silent. There's not a soul in sight. Where are all the colonists? I crouch by the guard and make sure keep the rifle steady with one arm while I put two fingers on the guy's neck. It takes me a couple of seconds but I finally manage to feel the pulse. The guy was obviously knocked out, judging by the slightly bleeding bruise on his forehead.

Huh, I actually feel rather awesome right now. I actually had a reason to check someone's pulse while looking awesome while doing it. Sadly, the situation itself wasn't that comforting. "He's alive," I quietly say, giving Wrex a glance. He doesn't look all that worried. Just a bit annoyed, if that frown is any indication. He's still cautious though, looking around and keeping his weapon raised.

It wasn't really hard to figure out what happened here. It obviously weren't the geth, since I never even heard of geth knocking someone out. The colonists won't do this either so it left only one person. Which begged the question... where is Ashley now? More importantly... where are all the colonists? Did Ashley make it back to the Normandy? Was she captured by the colonists? Did she kill everyone? I have no idea.

Even more importantly, what the hell do we do now? I don't really think it's safe to stay standing here, and neither does Wrex, since he starts walking further into the colony... wait. Oh shit, he's going into the heart of the colony! I quickly run over to him and manage to catch his attention by patting his shoulder. "Slow down a bit..." I say quietly.

"Why?" he asks and catches me completely off guard. Really, why should we slow down? It's not like we can stay here and we really do need to find out what's going on.

"Let's be a bit more... careful. Something's really wrong with this place," I finally say. Being careful was way better than rushing into the line of fire. I know that the colonists will be hostile, while Wrex doesn't, so it's up to me to insure minimal casualties after all.

Wrex huffs in annoyance and turns around to continue on his path... only we're stopped by a single colonist staring at us a few feet ahead of his. He stares at us blankly while both Wrex and I are staring at him in return, more in surprise though. The guy's face is utterly blank but after a second or two he blinks and raises his weapon at us.

Before I can even react an incredibly loud booming noise swallows the silence and I see the colonist flying back, several holes in his torso.

I stare at the dead body for a second or two, completely shocked. There goes my mission to make sure the colonists are all alive. Slowly, my eyes move over to the smoking barrel of Wrex's shotgun. I quickly turn on him and punch his shoulder with all my strength. A lot of good that did, since I think I did more damage to my fist against the thick plates that composed his armor. That didn't even budge him. "What the fuck are you doing?" I yell at him. Fuck, there was no hesitation, no warnings, nothing. He just... shot him like it was nothing!

Wrex actually looks surprised for a second before he narrows his eyes and glares at me. "He was going to shoot us!" he snaps, angrily pointing at the dead body. "You want me to just stand there?"

"No!" I snap back at him. "We came here to help these people, not fucking shoot them down!" Wow, I can't believe I'm actually yelling at Wrex. Wait, I can't believe I'm yelling at him and still didn't get punched in the face. Usually I suck at arguing and yelling at stuff. "Couldn't you shoot him in the leg or something?"

Wrex grunts in annoyance and with a glare, leans closer to my face... as in, right _into_ my face. I lean back and at the moment I'm glad I wear a helmet, because I'm scared shitless and it's probably showing. "Next time... I'll just let them shoot you," he growls angrily and turns away from me.

Okay, I think I'm not going to be dismembered by Wrex for now, so I guess it's safe to assume that I didn't piss him off too much. Well, I still think that I'm in the right here. These guys aren't even in control of themselves. Once again my mind starts wondering whether they are actually aware of what's happening or if the thorian makes them believe in what they do. Fai Dan fought the mind control, but it seemed to be a painful process... painful enough that death seemed a better option. Damn, just thinking about this sends chills down my spine.

"You know I'm freaking right," I say after him. Yeah, I'm probably doing something incredibly stupid right now, but I can't just let it go like this. I understand that Wrex doesn't know the whole story about the thorian, and this means that keeping these poor fellas alive is up to me. "And Shepard will agree with me."

Wrex stops, turns around to face and opens his mouth to say something but before the words could leave his mouth the thundering boom of assault rifles interrupt us. Judging by the amount of noise and the amount of rounds that start flying around, I can safely say that more than a couple of colonists are shooting at us. I'm not even bothering to look and count them because as soon as I hear the shots I start running back to where we came from, which happened to have a lot of cover. I don't bother to see if Wrex is following me because the heavy thuds that indicated his footsteps was enough of an indication.

I move behind the... building-thing and try to think of a way to get out of this situation. The way to the Normandy is blocked. I don't want to kill the colonists and we lack those special grenades against them. We can go back to the tunnels and wait for Shepard there but the glaring thought about Ashley stops me from going with the latter plan. Is she okay? Did she go to the Normandy? If she did so, then did she make it? I know she can handle herself but I can't help but be a bit worried. We left her completely alone with a bunch of mind-controlled thralls, so I think it makes sense that I feel a bit guilty about this.

Wrex's booming shotgun interrupts my line of thought and I turn to see him firing at the colonists from behind the corner of the building. "Don't kill them!" I yell at him.

My shout got me a vicious glare from the krogan. "What do you want me to do, hug them?" he growls and lets out a shot for emphasize.

Well, he got me there. "Well, don't kill them! Just shoot at them so they won't get any closer," I suggest as I look around for something that could help us.

The krogan grunts in annoyance. "That's what I'm doing," he gruffly mutters loudly enough for me to hear.

Okay... think, think! How do I get to the Normandy without killing, or injuring these colonists? Huh, asking is easier than doing it. I have no idea what to do! Wrex flares his biotics and does something that I can't see, though he probably pushed them away. I guess I can help him a bit. I move out of cover and fire blindly with fully automatic fire. I don't hit anything, which for once is actually a good thing, but I manage to get some of them to take cover, thus reducing their chance to advance. As the rest of them start shooting at me I jump back into the cover of the building.

…wait.

The building! If I recall right, we can pass through the building right to the other side of the colony! "Give me a minute!" I yell out to Wrex as I run over to the door.

"A bit hard considering I can't kill them!" he yells back, sounding a bit annoyed by that fact. Not that I can blame him. It's freaking annoying that we can't do anything against them until Shepard get's here. Well, Wrex doesn't know that so it must be even _more_ frustrating for him! Poor guy.

I reach the door and punch the holographic open button only for it to buzz angrily and change it's color to red. I blankly stare at the door for a second and press the button again. It changes it's color again and buzzes once more. "Oh... fuck," I weakly say. Who the fuck locks the door at a time like this? "Uh, give me _another_ minute!" I yell over my shoulder. Wrex doesn't say anything, but I do hear his shotgun blast loudly a couple of times.

Okay, it's pretty simple. Keep calm! I just need to open the omni-tool and unlock the door. Simple as that! I've done it hundreds of times by now! And my asshole of a brain now reminds me that I've never done it under fire and I should hurry the fuck up instead of dawdling.

Sounds simple, I guess. I open up the omni-tool and run the hacking program. I'm fidgeting like a moron as I wait for the program to load up and once it does I'm feeling immense relief when I see that it's only a 'level two' security, as Tali called it. I can break through a level two security in a minute!

It's pretty simple, now that I think of it. I'm actually a bit surprised that I can even hack something when only six months ago I didn't have a single clue about hacking. And here I am, hacking a freaking door while brainwashed colonists are trying to kill us. Wow, this sounds utterly surreal when I think about it. Then again, if I'd knew I was going to be in this situation before I got to this dimension – or time, whatever – I would've decided I had too many drinks and that maybe I accidentally smoked something other than cigarettes.

"The fuck is that?" Wrex growled in... confusion? Weird, there's definitely confusion in his voice. I tear my attention off the omni-tool and look at the krogan. Just in time, apparently. As soon as I look something... green jumps on the krogan. Wrex intercepts the thing with his shoulder and with an easy-looking motion, sends it flying over his shoulder, where it landed with a rather disgusting squelch. I look at the thing more closely and quickly recognize the thing, much to my disgust. I always thought that it was amazing how things looked better than how they looked in the game and it's actually true. In this case, I really regret this because frankly, the thorian creepers look _a lot_ more disgusting than how they looked in the game. I actually need to fight the bile from rising up my throat. It's a vomit-inducing sight. Dead looking skin which hangs loosely on the thing's bones, or whatever it has. Dark, sunken eyes with some black... liquid-thing pouring out of the sockets, not to mention the disgusting looking drool that was pouring out of it's lipless mouth. All in all, it looks like a half-decomposed corpse... with claws.

Wait... oh shit, it's still moving. Wrex didn't kill it! It jerks around on the ground for a couple of seconds before it recollects itself and starts getting back on it's feet. I look at Wrex, who happens to be giving me a pointed look. "Can I kill _these_ things?" he asks me mockingly.

The creeper climbs to it's feet and apparently, it decided that I'm the lesser threat because it turns to face me. "Yes! Kill it, kill it!" I scream as the thing starts running at me. I manage to aim my rifle one handed and I let out a short burst. I cringe at the recoil but by sheer luck a few rounds hit the creeper in the chest, which slowed him down enough for Wrex to shoot it down. I take a few calming breaths and look at Wrex, who by now turned his attention back to the colonists. "Yes, you can kill these thing. With prejudice," I say heatedly.

"Not a problem. A lot more of these things are coming, so hurry up!" he barks back, though I can hear a hint of amusement in his voice. Crazy motherfucker, how can one be so amused at this time? He has a point though, so back to work! Shit, I'm nearly out of time! Okay, I need to finish this quickly before I get locked out. "Hurry up!" Wrex grunts as he moves over to me as his last position is overrun by the creepy creepers. Before they could advance further, Wrex sends them back with a powerful biotic shove but as soon as they go down, several more come to replace them.

Fuck, how many more of them are there? It's a freaking miniature army! Okay, concentrate on the hacking, this is more important. Okay, just a second more and... got it! I look back to Wrex as the door pleasantly chimes and slides open. "Wrex! Get in!" I shout at him.

Or... well, tried to.

As I turn around to called Wrex, all I managed to say was "Wr-" before I felt something grab my neck. The next second involved a lot of the world spinning around, a confusing sense of being upside down, then a sudden pain when I land on my back, already inside the building, and find myself staring into the barrel of a rifle.

"Alex?" a very familiar voice asks. I look past the rifle and I see Ashley looking at me with some confusion written on her face.

"Ash?" I ask slowly. I'm a bit confused here. What the hell happened? My best guess is that she... flipped me or something, since all the sensations I felt were usually involved when someone threw me around.

"Close the door!" Wrex barks as he runs into the building with around a dozen creepers on his tail. This quickly snaps Ash out of her confusion and she punches the button. The door closes just as the first creeper reached us, closing shut right in it's face. There are a few muffled thuds as they keep hitting the metal doors a few times and all the while Ashley is doing something with her omni-tool. "There, all locked and safe," she mutters after several seconds.

"I thought you weren't a tech specialist," I ask curiously. Guess now I know who locked the door.

"Please, only a moron doesn't know how to lock a simple door," she says with a roll of her eyes.

… huh. I don't know how to lock a door like this... not that I'm going to say it out loud. This _definitely_ goes to my 'not to be mentioned' list, else I will never live it down.

"What took you so damn long?" she asks as she rounds at me, sounding somewhat pissed.

Okay, why does she look at me? Why doesn't she ask Wrex? Oh, wait. Yeah. He's a krogan. Man, this sucks. Around Wrex I'm _always_ the lesser threat. Bah, it really makes me feel stupid when I ask question that I already answered. At least I don't do it out loud. "We were clearing the tunnels," I say the obvious answer. "A better question, why didn't you warn us that the whole colony went batshit insane?" I ask back, sending her an angry look... at least until I remembered I wear a helmet. Well, I hope my skull helmet can convey the anger for me.

Sadly, Ash doesn't look even slightly impressed. Or intimidated. "I tried. You didn't respond," she replies, sounding very annoyed.

I send a glance at Wrex, wordlessly asking for assistance, which he thankfully gets. "We just got static. Nothing else," he gruffly states, still eying the door.

"Yeah, I guess there were some jamming devices down there, or something like that," I add my input to the picture.

She scoffs at that, giving me a mild glare. "Just so you know, I blame you for all of this," she states.

What? "Why?" I ask, extremely confused. How the hell is this my fault? I haven't done anything!

"You jinxed it!" she says angrily, pointing an accusing finger at me. I can only gape in response, not that she can see it. "Saying how odd they were behaving, how suspicious everything is and now look what happened!"

"You can't blame blame me for this in any possible way," I counter.

"Huh, she's got a point," Wrex pipes in. No, not you too? By the nine hells, what is wrong with you? "you do seem to have the habit of jinxing things. Remember Therum?"

Okay, this is totally unfair. "Hey, Shepard was the one who jinxed it," I reminded him.

"True, but you're the one who made her jinx it," Wrex countered expertly. Shit, I have nothing to say against it.

"Bah! You superstitious lot!" I finally say. It's clear that I'm not going to win this argument. And why am I still on the floor?

"Not superstitions. Just experience," Ashely says sagely as I stand up and Wrex nods in agreement.

"So what do we do now?" I ask. Hopefully that will change the subject. I look to the other side of the corridor, where I see a locked door. "Can we get to the Normandy from there?"

Ash shakes her head with a frown. "That won't work. Believe me, I tried. We're stuck here until the Commander comes to rescue us."

"Great," Wrex mutters to himself but we both ignore him.

"I take that you warned her already?" I ask.

"Obviously," she rolled her eyes at that and really, that _was_ a stupid question. "I hope she'll get here soon. When I called her she was in ExoGeni's facility," she explains as she leads us into one of the rooms. It has a few chairs there and a couple of water bottles on a small table.

I groan at that. Seems like we're going to be here for a while. I have no idea long it will take Shepard to get here but I really hope it will be soon enough. In the game it took me about... I dunno, twenty minutes to clear that place. But since it's been a while since I played that game, I might be wrong and it actually took me an hour, or something. I pull off my helmet and take a seat on one of the chairs with a heavy sigh.

And now we're all quiet, which I hate, and to make matters worse, I'm getting bored. "So..." I slowly start, looking at Ash. "Do you come here often?" I ask, giving her a cheesy grin.

A blank stare is all the answer I get. I sigh again. This is _really_ going to take a while...

* * *

><p>I open my eyes with a start when Ash shakes my shoulder and I see her looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Rise and shine," she says with a small grin. "The Commander's here."<p>

Uh, what? What just... rise and shine? What is... one moment I was sitting and then...

Apparently Ash saw my confusion and gives me an exasperated look. "You fell asleep."

I what? Huh... that kinda explains it. I just dozed off. Weird. I wasn't really that tired to begin with so I really had no reason to fall asleep like that. Oh, yeah, I was extremely bored. "How long did I sleep?" I ask and get up to my feet to stretch my limbs.

"Not long. Half-an-hour at most," she curtly replies as she checked her rifle. "now hurry up. Shepard should be here in a moment."

Well, no need to repeat that. I quickly pick up my helmet and put it on and pick up my rifle. We move over to the door, where Wrex was already waiting. We silently stop in front of the door and wait. I try to listen to what's going on outside but unfortunately, I can barely hear a thing and whatever I can hear seems to be rather useless.

I don't know how log we stand there, but it felt like an hour or so. This anticipation and baited breaths is tearing my nerves apart. I hate these moments. At least I can distract myself a bit with whatever I can think of. So far I'm in love in my helmet. I wore motorcycle helmets before and I was never fond of them, mostly because it felt stuffed inside and after I removed it, my head was covered in sweat. With this helmet on the other hand, it was minimal. I really have to find out how the hell a helmet can have such ventilation. My old _house_ didn't have such comfortable ventilation abilities. Summer was outright hellish.

My thoughts are interrupted by a muffled gunshot, which causes us to perk up. The first gunshot is quickly followed by another one and then another one. Within several seconds automatic fire thunders all over the place, which is enough of a signal for us.

Ash opens her omni-tool. "Get ready," she says and we eagerly comply. I shoulder my rifle and put my finger on the trigger. Dang, this is unnerving. I can't help but imagine that any moment now, the door will open and a horde of creepers will charge inside to tear us apart. I sometimes hate my imagination.

The door slides open with a hiss and to my surprise, a single creeper is standing there, staring at us. This is enough to make me flinch, since despite my idiotic imagination, it's enough to startle me. I'm about to pull the trigger but Wrex beat me to it. A lout boom later and the creeper's head literally turns to paste, sending bits of... stuff flying through the air.

By the gods, why does this keep happening to me? That's it. I am never standing near Wrex when he uses his shotgun. Heads tend to explode around him and this is really bad for my stomach. I nearly threw up right now!

I try my best to look somewhere else, anything else other than the headless corpse – even Ash was making an effort to look somewhere else from what I see – and my eyes land on Shepard and Garrus, who were aiming their weapons at us.

"Don't shoot!" I yell out as I run down the stairs to join them. They quickly avert their weapons from us and start shooting the hostiles, mainly the creepers who were gradually growing in numbers and advancing.

"Are you alright?" Shepard barks out after she killed a creeper that got too close.

I'm about to answer but I have to quickly duck behind a concrete block when several colonists come around the corner and start shooting at us. "For the most part, yeah. Any idea why the colony went crazy?" I ask, more for Wrex and Ashley's sake than mine.

Shepard throws something and it sails through the air and lands near the brainwashed colonists. A second later it explodes in a large cloud of green gas and a second after that, the colonists collapse as if they're been shot in the head. She then looks back at me. "I thought I explain it already," she says with a frown.

"He's been sleeping at the time," Ashley barks out as she ran past us to join Kaidan behind one of the large crates.

At this Shepard gives me a very confused look. "I was bored," I say with a shrug.

"Uh, okay," she replies at length, standing up and shooting down another creeper. "In a nutshell, an ancient sentient plant is mind-controlling these people and for some reason Saren wanted something from it," she says quickly with an entirely straight face.

"Okay," I say with a nod and stand up to shoot something. My sight lands on a creeper that is running at Garrus. Three quick burst later, the thorian drops to the ground, holes riddling his torso.

I duck down again and notice that Shepard is giving me an odd look. Sadly, I can't raise an eyebrow or anything so I just stare at her in the hopes she will get my confusion. "What, no questions? No shock? No confusion? You're just... accepting that a _plant_ – of all things – is controlling these people?" she asks incredulously.

Huh, that does sound a bit suspicious. No worries though, I have a perfect thing to say. "Weirder shit can happen," I say with another shrug.

"Like what?"

I let out a few more bursts which result in another downed creeper before I look back at Shepard. "One time, I went on a road trip and when I came back, I discovered that the cabbage ate the fried chicken and when I tried to throw it away it tried to eat _me_," I say with a flat voice. Well, actually the fried chicken were only covered by some moss-like substance, which originated from the cabbage and when I tried to throw out the cabbage it somehow glued itself to my hand. Of course, my version of the event is so much more interesting, so I went with it.

Shepard lets out a short snicker and shakes her head. Cool, my story is amusing her. For me it was traumatizing! Without saying anything else Shepard stands up and runs off to the catwalk thing that goes around the blockade of crates the colonists set up. Makes me wonder though. Instead of trying to break through the door to get us, instead they just moved crates around. Weird.

I quickly follow Shepard and we join with the rest of the team. From that moment, we start to tear into their ranks. Not one of the creepers manages to get anywhere close to us, being either shot down by our combined fire or thrown away by our large amount of biotics. The only ones who posed some measure of a threat to us were the brainwashed colonists and they were quickly taken care of by some incredibly accurate grenade throws from Kaidan and Shepard. With just about two minutes, all the colonists are knocked out and just a flimsy pair of creeper are running at us until they were both shot down.

We stand there, rooted in place, for a few more seconds, waiting to see if more creepers are going to pop out to kill us, and when nothing happens we finally allow ourselves to relax a bit and lower our weapons. I holster my rifle and follow Shepard as she approaches the... crane controls and I suddenly remember that something is going to happen now. Isn't this when Fai Dan should be... Shepard whips out her pistol and whirls around to point at something. I follow her gaze and see Fai Dan stumbling out from around the corner.

He looks to be in a large amount of pain, judging by the horrible grimace that is on his face and his steps are labored, as if he can barely put one leg in front of the other. "I tried to fight it," he groans out with difficulty. "but it gets in your head... you can't imagine the pain."

Shit. I can't describe this up with a better word. I remember this part very well and since the very first time I played through the game. I've always wondered why I couldn't save Fai Dan, since I think that shooting his pistol out of his hands is more than possible but the question is... should I? The Chairman warned me, pretty much ordered me not to change anything, or as he called it, fuck things up.

"I was supposed to be their leader... these people trusted me," his hand travels down and grasps his weapon.

Fai Dan suddenly raises his pistol and aims it at us. I decide to do the same. I pull out my pistol, since I'm much more accurate with it, and take aim. Not at Fai Dan, but at his pistol. "It wants me to... stop you..." he groans out, struggling to get the words out.

I can try to shoot the pistol out of his hands but... what if I miss? Even worse, what if I don't miss? What if I would shoot him in the head by accident, or blow off his hand? I can't really say I'm a good shot. But the question remains. Should I even try to save him? The Chairman's words drift into my brain again and I can't help but grimace. He said that just my presence on the Citadel already changes things. The fact that I joined the crew is already a huge change. Would saving Fai Dan really change anything major? Would it really make things worse if we saved him?

"But I..." he struggled out and I see his hand traveling further up and closer to his head and I realize that I have no more time to think this through. "I won't!" he growls through gritted teeth as the pistol gets closer and closer to his head. It was time to decide.

Three words pass through my mind: Fuck the Chairman.

"Do something!" I yell loudly and sprint to Fai Dan.

"I won't!" Fai Dan screams and the pistol finally reaches his head, aimed at his temple.

A gunshot rings out and I blink. For a split second I think I'm too late but then I see that his pistol is utterly blown apart and the shocked expression on his face. I finally reach him and punch out, burying my fist into his face. There's a loud smack and he does a half-spin before he drops down, completely out of it.

Fuck yeah! I knocked him out! But _daaaaamn_, that freaking hurt! I rub my aching knuckles and flex my fingers a few times to make sure nothing's broken. I turn around to see who shot the pistol and my eyes land on Garrus, still holding a smoking pistol. "Good shot," I say with a sigh and look down at Fai Dan. "He's alive... he's alive..." I breathe out, more to myself than the others. Shit, I changed the future. Fai Dan is alive and I totally changed something. I have no idea how the Chairman is going to react, but fuck him, I just saved this guy's life!

I look back at Shepard and to my surprise she looks utterly pissed. For a second I think she's pissed at me but after a moment she holsters her pistol and looks at the crane controls before she walks over to Fai Dan to check out the damage, I guess. "Now I'm pissed off," she announced.

"He was going to kill himself..." I hear Liara mutter.

"He said that he was controlled through pain," I say as I walk to the console. "I guess... that death is a more pleasant alternative," I say with some disgust. I really want a flamethrower right now and burn the fuck out of this freaky plant. Sadly, I don't have a flamethrower so we'll just have to kill it the classical way. Okay, let's get this crane working.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Garrus asks from behind me.

Oh god. You didn't. He's setting this up for me, by purpose or by accident, I don't know but I am definitely not missing the chance. I never thought that I'll ever get the chance to say this, but here it is! Also, considering the stuff I'm learning now and what I plan to know later, I have every right to say this, which makes this only better. And I can make it sound even better, considering my origin.

I clear my throat, turn to look at Garrus, and speak with my best Hollywood Russian accent. "Trust me, I'm an engineer."

Garrus scoffs at that but I can tell he's amused, at least somewhat. Anyway, at least that shut him up, so either way, mission accomplished! I turn back to the console and start working. Well, it's not like anyone needs a degree in engineering to work this thing anyway. Let's see... 'crane controls' and 'up'. Simple as that! The machinery whirrs to life and lifts up the... big thing, revealing the secret passage to the thorian's lair.

"Let's go," Shepard barks out and we all follow her down the dark stairway.

* * *

><p>Wow, I had no idea that it was this deep underground. The game just cut to the next cutscene after a short loading, but it took us a little over five minutes to finally reach the end! I'm frustrated by now! So is everyone else.<p>

"Finally," Ash mutters loudly when we finally reach the end and walk into the large chamber. "Let's find this thing and put a couple of rounds... into..." she trails off from there when the thorian, in all it's not-plant-like glory, comes into view. "What the hell is that?" she snaps.

Huh, even Shepard looks confused. "It's a... uh, plant? We may need... bigger guns," she says with some amount of awe and I can't blame her. This thing is huge! I move over to stand by Shepard to get a better look.

"I'm definitely not eating salad after this," I announce, looking pointedly at Kaidan, who look away with a smirk. Yeah, don't even think about this! If he's going to feed us with salad, I'm shooting him.

We slowly approach closer until the thorian starts to stir and make... growling noises. The head... front... thing of the thorian starts to move it's tentacles and a large amount of... liquid starts pouring out. Oh, god, it's going to do that disgusting thing! Must... not... think about... female... anatomy! With a final torrent of the... liquid a fully dressed green asari pops out and lands on the floor, covered from head to toe by the... ugh, I want to gag. Fuck you universe! You just _had_ to make _this_ look more detail too!

Ugh, by Myrkul's balls. This is disgusting! She's completely covered by that liquid thing! She came out of that thing! "Fuck it," I say and move over to the back of the group, just to put some distance between me and that thing. "I'm _never_ going to eat salad. Ever. Again."

The green asari... what's her name, Shiara? No, that's the one from the Citadel, I think... Shiala... yeah, that's her name. She faces Shepard and starts to speak. "Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose."

"Not the most friendly one, is she?" I mutter to Kaidan. He sends me a silencing look and looks back at the asari, most likely interested in what she's saying. Hey, I've heard this all already! Can't I have some fun?

"I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"

Shepard doesn't look impressed in the slightest. "You gave something to Saren... something that I need," she says firmly, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given! The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies! It will listen no more!" Ooh, now she's angry!

"Give me what I need and I'll strike back at the one who betrayed you. Saren is my enemy," Shepard explains, sounding frustrated more than intimidated.

"No more will the thorian listen to those that scurry. Your lives are short, but have gone on too long!" she states with finality that let us understand that this conversation is over.

Well, not if I can help it! "Just one question!" I say loudly, stepping forward and pointing a finger at her dramatically, at least in my opinion. Pointing accusing fingers at stuff generally tend to be dramatic. The asari's gaze moves over to me but I don't give her a chance to say anything before I ask my very important question. "Is the thorian really a plant? Because it looks very meaty to me..."

The reactions are varied. The asari looks at me blankly while Shepard gives me a very incredulous look, looking almost one step away from palming her face. "..what?" I ask indignantly, looking at Shepard. "My future eating habits depend on this question!"

Sadly, the Shiala clone didn't understand humor... or just didn't understand my humor – which I get a lot – and pulled out a shotgun. Wait, where the hell did she get that? Oh, shit! She's aiming it at me! Luckily for me, a biotic push from Kaiden or Liara sends the clone stumbling back, which gives me more than enough time to pull out _my_ shotgun. Time to field-test this boy!

By now, everyone took out their weapons and started shooting at the asari and I only manage to shoot once. The recoil is a pain but this time I was ready for it and let out a blast without staggering. Not that it mattered, since from this distance I scored a direct hit on the poor clone, which sent it to the floor.

"You just had to piss her off, didn't you?" Kaidan groans as the thorian creepers around us slowly 'wake up' and rise to their feet.

"For the record, that really was a very important question," I defend myself, letting out another shotgun blast at a creeper that just stood up. The blast practically tore apart it's chest and sent it to the ground again. Oh yeah! I love this thing! Too bad that my arms are going to be numb in a few more shots.

"Less talking, more shooting!" Shepard barks out, sending a pair of creepers falling into the bottomless pit that was below the thorian. Having taken care of that, she leads us further further into the chamber.

"Commander, look at this," Kaidan points out, pointing at the large growth that was attached to the wall.

Shepard inspected it for a few seconds before she raised her shotgun. "Shooting usually works," she remarks before fired. She didn't need to say anything else. We all start shooting at the growth until after several seconds something burst inside the... appendage and a few gallons of green fluid poured out of it. A second later, the thorian let out a pain... shriek like noise and the walls rumbled for a second or two.

"That got it's attention," Ash remarks, looking at the thorian. "looks like there's more of these things," she says, pointing at the various growth that came out of the thorian and into the walls.

"Well then, looks like we have a way to kill this thing," Shepard agrees and wordlessly leads the way up the stairs. We all wordlessly follow her and I fall in line right by Garrus.

He lets out a short chuckle. "Just like in that game, huh?" he remarks. What game? Oh! The zombie one! Wait...

This causes me to pause and Garrus did the same, though he was looking at me with slight amusement. "You're not going to shoot me, right?" I ask cautiously.

This get's him to give me a turian smirk. "Only if you steal my loot," he quipped.

From there it falls into a routine of sorts. We move up, kill dozens of creepers, kill the Shiala clone that respawns as soon as we kill her, find the node, destroy it and repeat. It was not very noticable with the team we had now, but as we moved higher and higher, the thorian got more and more desperate. The number of creepers that charged us grew in numbers and Shiala-clone started popping up nearly around every corner!

Soon, after what seemed like countless floors, countless thorian creepers and countless shots fired we finally reach the final and uppermost floor. I'm the last one to make it up the stairs – in case the creepers tried to get us from behind, which they already tried – and I make it up just in time for another Shiala clone to pop out of one of those... wall-bubble things, and a horde of creepers to storm us.

The Shiala-clone ran around the creepers, covered in a biotic barrier and after a second focuses on me. Before I can do anything her biotics flare and I can see something blue sailing through the air at me at breakneck speeds.

Shit, I don't have any time to do anything. Shooting her won't do. Her barrier will take the hit and from this distance I doubt I'll land a decisive hit. Dodging won't really work, since by now it's already halfway to me. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I could actually think this through before the thing hit me.

"Aww, fu-" my words are interrupted when the blue projectile slams into my chest with the force of a sledgehammer and I'm sent flying back down the stairs. Well, I don't really fall down the stairs, more like, fly over them, because the next thing I know my back slams against the wall and I fall down to the floor and land on my back, again.

_Ow_. Fuck, my head is _ringing!_ Not to mention my poor back. I think I hear someone call my name but I'm not really sure I really heard it. Thank god I'm wearing a helmet, otherwise I think I'd have a concussion right now. With a groan I pick up my shotgun, which by a miracle landed next to me, and freeze when I see a pair of legs standing next to me. A pair of green legs. I follow the legs up and see a creeper standing over me, looking at me blankly. Okay, this is weird. Instead of attacking me, to my horror the creeper opened his mouth. No! No, no, no! _Hell no!_

I roll to the side just as the torrent of acidic vomit sprays out of the thing's mouth. The acid lands on the floor, where it sizzles loudly and some drops hit my arm but I ignore it in favor of raising my shotgun and pulling the trigger. Shooting from the floor is not very comfortable, but I don't care at the moment. The blast hits the creeper in the chest and sends it flying back down the second set of stairs.

I stand up and move away from the still-sizzling puddle of acid vomit and shake my head to clear the dizziness away. Yeah, I'd definitely have a concussion if I didn't wear a helmet. I'm definitely pissed off though. I'm covered in weird thorian goo from all the creepers we killed, I feel dirty and I was biotically thrown down the stairs. In my opinion, I'm entitled to be pissed.

I quickly run up the stairs and much to my joy, the Shiala-clone is blocking my way. The reason why it brings me much joy was the fact that she had her back turned to me. Oh yeah, I'm gonna get myself some of that revenge. I'm actually very disappointed that I don't have the ability to pump my shotgun, since there's no need for it, but I'm assured that if I did pump my shotgun right now, I'll look like a total badass. I don't say anything as I walk over to her and simply raise the shotgun and plant it on the back of her head. She stiffens at the contact but I don't give her any chance to save herself. I simply pull the trigger and watch the show.

It's utterly disgusting, nauseating but oddly enough, very satisfying, though I doubt I'll want to do it ever again. I see Ash and Kaiden grimace at the sight as I step over her body and put the shotgun on my shoulder and I notice Wrex looking at me with a small grin. Yeah, bask in my awesomeness! I have learned the art of head-combustion from Urdnot Wrex himself! Without saying anything – words are unneeded – I run over to the rest of the team.

It's not long until we finally reach the last node, guarded by a horde of creepers of course, but we easily take care of them. As soon as we destroy the final node the whole place starts to shake. Several nodes are torn off the walls, quickly followed by the others as they could no longer support the weight of the thorian. With the final node tearing itself off the wall the thorian starts plumeting down to the bottomless pit and with a final shriek it disappears in the darkness.

To my disgust, the remaining creepers spontaneously combust, and soon after that the area is engulfed by silence. I allow myself to sigh in relief and holster my shotgun into it's place. Shepard turns to us to say something but before she can one of the nearby wall-bubble things opens up with a splat and an asari drops out to the floor, where lands with a stagger and blinks in confusion a few times.

Raising an eyebrow in interest, Shepard approaches her and Shiala turns her attention to the Commander. "I'm... free!" she says with some wonder, looking over her body. "I... I suppose I should thank you for releasing me," she slowly says as she looks at the Commander.

"How did you end up inside that..." Shepard grimaces for a second. "thing."

"My name is Shiala. I serve... served Matriarch Benezia. When she allied herself with Saren, so did I. Benezia foresaw the influence Benezia would have. She joined him to guide him down a gentler path, but Saren is compelling. Benezia lost her way..." she explains with some bitterness.

"Wait..." Shepard holds up a hand. "You're saying Saren can control minds now?" she asks incredulously.

"Benezia underestimated Saren, as I did. We came to believe in his cause and goals. The strength of his influence is troubling," she replies with a frown.

"No shit," I mutter, not quietly either. Shiala looks at me for a moment.

"Benezia tried to influence Saren but... in the end the plan backfired," she says sadly, looking down for a moment.

Liara walk forward and stands in front of Shiala and I can easily see the pain in confusion in her face. Damn... poor girl. "My mother is a Matriarch. How could she fall under Saren's control?" she asks, nearly pleads Shiala.

Shiala looks at Liara with something akin to pity for a moment before she replies. "Saren has a vessel. An enormous warship unlike anything I've ever seen. He calls it Sovereign and it can dominate the minds of his followers. They become indoctrinated to Saren's will. The process is subtle. It can take days, weeks but in the end, it is absolute," she says with a grimace. "By the time Saren brought me to this world, I was a willing slave. He needed my biotics to communicate with the thorian, to learn it's secrets. Saren offered me in trade. I was sacrificed to secure an alliance between them."

"Then why were the geth trying to destroy the thorian?" Shepard asks, coming back into the conversation.

"After Saren had what he needed, the thorian became a liability," was the simple reply. Just like that. He doesn't need the thorian any longer, that means he can kill it. What a bastard. Shiala then focuses all her attention to Shepard. "Saren knows you're searching for the Conduit, that you're following his footsteps. He attacked the thorian so you could not gain the cipher."

"Cipher? What is that and why did Saren need it?" Shepard asks, sounding confused. Well, obviously you'd be confused! It's a new plot device, silly! Okay, I guess I should stop commenting on events in my head like this. I might laugh or something.

"The beacon on Eden Prime gave you a vision, but they are unclear, confusing. They were meant for a prothean mind," she begins the explanation, "To truly comprehend them, you must think like a prothean. You must understand their culture, their history, their very existence. The thorian was here long before the protheans built built this city. It watched and studied them. When they died, it consumed them and they became part of it."

"And because of it, the thorian can teach someone to think like a prothean," Shepard says in understanding, getting a nod from Shiala. "how?"

"I... can't describe or explain it. It's like... describing color to a creature without eyes. It's an ancestral memory, a viewpoint of thousands of generations. I sensed this ancestral memory – the Cipher – when I melded with the thorian. Our minds merged, interwined. Such knowledge cannot be taught, it simply exists."

Shepard nodded, probably understanding what Shiala meant. After a few seconds of silence she takes a step forward. "I need the Cipher."

"There is a way. I can transfer the knowledge from my mind, to yours. I did the same with Saren. Try to relax, Commander..."

Oh, here we go! I never actually saw an Asari melding with someone before. When the Commander did it with Liara I was in the infirmary at the time, so I missed it. I watch as Shiala instructs Shepard in order to prepare her, using quite poetic words more than a few times. I have to wonder if all asari get so... poetic when they're about to meld with someone. Sounds a bit awkward in my opinion. And then, she does the 'Embrace Eternity' thing and her eyes become black, which is quite a freaky thing in my opinion.

Shepard cringes a few times as the visions play out in her mind until her breathing finally evens out and she slowly opens her eyes. "I have given you the Cipher," Shiala says as she steps back. "The ancestral memories of the protheans are a part of you now."

"Are you alright Shepard?" Kaidan asks worriedly, stepping over to her. "What did she do?"

Shepard frowns in thought before she replies. "I saw... something. It still didn't make much sense."

"You've been given a great gift. The experience of an entire race. It will take some times for your to process the information," Shiala explains. Hey, it kinda makes sense if you think about it. The experience of an entire race doesn't sound like something that my brain can handle in a second.

"You look a little...queasy. We should get you back to the ship," Ash remarks. Huh, I look at Shepard and notice that she does seem to be a bit pale and I some sweat on her forehead as if she's sick or something.

"Yeah, we really should go back. Saren's already has enough of a head start," she says firmly. Heh, thinking about her duty first. Then again, she can rest on the way.

"Then I wish good fortune upon you. Saren must be stopped before he finds the Conduit. As for me... I will stay here with the colonists. I... feel great shame for my part in their suffering. As long as any of the colonists remain on this world, I will do whatever I can to aid and protect them," she promises.

"You do that," I say with a nod. "this place really needs the help."

And with that we begin to head out for the exit, followed by Shiala. Bah, I'm tired. I've been thrown around, shot at, bitten and worse of all, vomited at. I feel dirty. I'm thinking about taking off my helmet but decided against it. I'm very, very thankful that smells don't get past my helmet, because I have a suspicion that all the things that stuck to my armor don't have a pleasant smell.

"As soon as I get back to the Normandy, I'm taking a shower," I hear Ash remark with disgust.

I chuckle at that. "Took the words right out of my mouth," I say back and then sigh when I remember the very long descent to this place.

Over five minutes of climbing stairs doesn't seem very inviting at the moment.

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! Feros is finally done! In the next chapter I plan to get some loyalty missions out of the way (not gonna say which) so I guess it's going to be interesting!<br>**

**I hope that I'll be able to update soon, but I somehow doubt it. You know how it is, finals and all that. I have three MAJOR exams by the end of the month (31st, 4th and 7th) and if I don't pass them, my existance will become much more annoying and disappointing. Instead of going to university, I'll have to find a job and wait until next year so I could take the exams again. Oh, and I'll have to listen to my family reminding me all the time how I failed the exams and how useless I am most of the time. So yeah, passing these exams is one of my top priorities so I really need to get ready for them. This unfortunately means that my writing time is cut down and I doubt I'll get out a new chapter soon. The good news is that after the 7th I will utterly and fully free to write as much as I like. So until then, I doubt I'll have a chapter, though it's still a possibility.  
><strong>

**So yeah, I want to thank you all for reading this story, commenting on it and giving me your opinion. It really makes me glad to know that so many people enjoy it! Feel free to leave a comment, tell me what you thought of the story, feel free to point out flaws and just tell me your opinion. I'd love to know what you think. **

**And so, this chapter is done! I'll see you later and until then, Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	27. Chapter 27

Huh... that was a bit anticlimactic. And boring.

After we finished off the thorian we came back to the surface, Shepard chatted a bit with the ExoGeni people and soon after we went back to the Normandy. Sadly, all the colonists were still unconscious, most importantly Fai Dan. I think kinda broke his nose and I really wanted to apologize, even if it's just for a punch. Not his fault he was mind controlled and all that, and then again, I doubt he would be really angry at me. We kinda saved his life after all. After a quick shower – where much soap was involved – I got myself some medigel to treat the acid burns on my wrist, along with everyone else, and headed to the debrief with the Council.

I'm actually surprised how quick Shepard wrote her report, which sort of explains why she was the last to take a shower. Overall, the debrief was boring. It went the same way as in the game, which is disappointing a bit and if Garrus wasn't sitting next to me, I think I would've managed to finish that nap. After the boring debrief, pretty much everyone went over to get something to eat. Excluding Wrex, who just went back to the hangar bay after grabbing a tube of that... bland food paste.

I think it's a bit sad that we humans get special treatment on this ship. Food-wise at least. I grab myself a tray with some... rice-like substance on it. It's not warm, but it's not cold either, and I'm fine with that. Not that bad either, tastes like rice too. Garrus sinks into the seat next to me, looking at the food tube in front of him with some disappointment.

"How's the taste?" I ask, honestly curious. I tasted the levo version of this food, and it tasted like crap. Or rather, it didn't taste anything. Like... dry paper.

Garrus sends me a withering glare and a sigh. "Could be worse," he admits. "Better than being hungry." I hum in thought and grab the tube and squeeze out a drop onto my finger. Garrus gapes at me for a second before he snatches the tube out of my hands, but it's too late since I already squeezed out a single tiny drop. I put the finger in my mouth and taste the paste.

I immediately cringe. Wow, this is worse than the levo version of this thing! That one tastes like dry paper. This one tastes like old cardboard... not that I know how cardboard tastes. I just have to assume that it tastes like this. "What are you doing?" Garrus snaps, catching the attention of Tali who just arrived.

"What is he doing?" she asks curiously.

"He just ate my paste!" he says incredulously and Tali quickly looks at me, visibly alarmed.

I roll my eyes at that. "Chill. It's just a small drop, obviously not enough to kill me," I wave their worry away. Jorrun once gave me a shot of turian whiskey by accident and that didn't kill me. Sure, sleeping by the toilet was not fun but by morning I was all fine and dandy, save for a minor stomach ache. It was pretty funny seeing Jorrun panicking and freaking out though. "And for the record, staying hungry might be better. It tastes like crap!"

"That it is," Garrus sighs and gives me a pointed look. "Don't do that again. Switching foods is one of the most popular ways to kill someone. I've seen what happens to humans, and turians, when they eat the wrong food."

Oh, that explains why he got so freaked out. "Don't worry. I'm not planning to," I say. I want to live a long life – which is surprising, considering my occupation – and food poisoning is a shitty way to die in my opinion. I look at Tali as she attaches her food tube to her face mask. It's quite interesting to watch but I think she's a bit uncomfortable with the attention. "So, Tali. I hope you weren't too bored here on the Normandy," I start a conversation.

"Not really. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to do much but I won't dwell on it. I'll get my chance later," she states.

I nod at that. "Good way of thinking," I remark. "You didn't really miss much anyway. Just lot's of geth, plant zombies and brainwashed colonists," I look at Garrus, who stops eating from all the attention on him.

"Lot's of geth, plant zombies and brainwashed colonists," he repeats, obviously agreeing with me, and returns back to his food.

Tali sighs at that. "I just stood near the airlock, just in case the colonists would manage to break in. Nothing happened. Joker is... interesting, to say the least," she says the last part a bit... awkwardly.

"That he is," I agree with her. Joker can be summed up as many thing, and interesting is sure one of them. This reminds me. I should visit him more often. I've been a bit of an asshole before, so I guess I should come in peace next time.

Bah, my food is getting cold... well, colder, so I might as well eat it already. I quickly wolf down all the food, trying to not to chew it, because even if the taste is much better than the paste, it still sucked. Still, I have time to contemplate on stuff, which is good.

I have to wonder how saving Fai Dan would change things. Hell, I have to wonder how_ I_ change things. The Chairman said that just by being here I already changed things. Yeah, sure, without me it's possible that Fai Dan would've been dead, but other than that... what really did I change? From what I saw so far, everything is the same. Hell, even some of the conversations are the same, mainly the one with Shiala. So... why did the Chairman warn me so many times? Perhaps the changes I made are simply... small and hard to notice? Meh, as long as I don't get anyone killed, it's fine with me.

Speaking of getting someone killed... Virmire. What the hell do I do with it? I don't care what the Chairman says or thinks about this. There's no way I'm leaving one of them to die there. We're not exactly close friends, yet at least, but I'm not letting either one of them die. Simple as that. My main problem? I have no fucking idea what to do. I need to plan. I need a good plan but sadly, right now I don't have even the beginning of a plan. I sigh a glance at Kaidan, who stands in his usual place, warming up some food for himself – I wonder why I hadn't though of that – and speaking with... hello there.

Shepard is there, talking with him about something. But this isn't what catches my attention, since it's pretty normal for Shepard to talk with someone. No, what catches my attention is the small, playful smirk that Shepard displays and the fact that Kaidan looks to be a bit... flustered. Shit, it looks like he's going to blush or something, which is something that obviously amuses Shepard, judging my how her smirk grew.

"Hm, that's interesting," I mutter to myself and catch Garrus' attention.

"What is?" he asks, looking at with the turian equivalent of a raised eyebrow.

"Don't you think that the Commander and Kaidan are awfully... friendly?" I ask slowly, keeping my voice low.

Garrus looks at the pair and stares for a few seconds, just in time to see Shepard laughing about something. With a shrug, Garrus turns his attention back to the food. "Seems normal."

I blink at him. This ain't normal! Well, he doesn't know that Shepard can romance Kaidan but... I could be wrong. I mean, they know eachother longer than the rest of us, so I might be wrong. After all, I'm the last person in the galaxy that should be asked about relationships. I suck in that department.

"Still suspicious in my opinion," I say with a shrug and shovel the remaining food into my mouth and quickly swallow the rice-thing. "way too friendly if you ask me."

Garrus rolls his eyes in response. "I don't need to know about your human mating rituals," he says in annoyance.

Funny Garrus, if things will go that way, you _will_ be interested in them. Not that it will help him much, I recall him being utterly awkward about the whole thing. Meh, at least he acknowledges that there's something between them.

"I'm not really sure. They're good friends, that much is obvious," Tali remarks. Hm, and I thought that Tali was our resident body-language expert. Then again, she's probably not very familiar with the human body-language yet.

I want to say something but the conversation is quickly stopped when Shepard leaves Kaidan and walks over to us. She gives us a suspicious look, probably because we stopped talking and stare at her in silence but she quickly dismisses it. "If you're not busy, come to the garage later," she says.

I have to roll my eyes at that. "I practically live there anyway," I say and Garrus nods in agreement. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing big," she says with a small smirk. "Just be there. You'll understand once you see it," and with that, she walks away.

There is a moment of silence until I decide to break it. "Well, this is curious. I'm gonna be there anyway, so... why not?" I say with a shrug. I was planning to check out my shotgun more closely, hopefully to do something about the recoil, but now that Shepard is all vague and mysterious, I'm very curious.

"I guess I can take a break from the engines," Tali says slowly. We both then look at Garrus who just shrugs.

"I have some calibrations to do," he explains.

I roll my eyes at that. "You're gonna be in the same room anyway..." I mutter and he shrugs again.

Well, if I have plans for later I might as well check out my new shotgun. I stand up, place my empty tray back to it's place and make my way to the garage.

I wonder what Shepard is up to.

* * *

><p>"...And that's why I don't wear a helmet when I don't have to," Shepard finishes with a short laugh.<p>

"Whoa. I never would've expected that," I say, quite impressed by her tale. And it's quite a nice tale too! She's a good storyteller.

I was quite surprised when I found out what Shepard's plan was. We're all down at the garage, sitting around a couple of large crates that served as our table. Out of nowhere, she pulls out a deck of cards and all of a sudden I find everyone playing poker, me included. I personally suck at poker, but this might be fun, since Shepard calls it 'quality bonding time'. I'm a bit saddened that there's nothing... spicy to drink, but this is a military vessel, so no such luck.

I was a bit surprised when Wrex decided to join us. Usually he stays by himself or just observes us. Liara decided to just observe, since she didn't know how to play the game. Shepard explained the basics to Tali and she joined us, Garrus and Wrex already knew how to play, so... fun times are to be had. Well, not really. I already lost 200 credits by now... but not this time! I've got a freaking full house, and there's no one to beat me. Except everyone else. I always lose when I play poker. Blackjack is so much better now that I think about it.

Bah, couldn't we watch a movie or something? Way more economically comfortable for me.

"Alright," I decide to stop the amusing banter and storytelling. I have some money to win! This is my chance to win back all the losses. "Back to the game," I say and add twenty credits to the pot.

"So eager to lose? Already?" Garrus pipers in as he throws in more credits.

"I ain't losing this time," I shoot back with a grin and glance at Tali. This got to count as cheating. She's got an impenetrable poker face!

"Is that so? We'll prepare to be crushed," Garrus replies nonchalantly.

"Gary, have you been smoking thorian?" I ask casually, getting a snicker out of Tali and Ashley. "because you are _clearly_ delusional if you think you can win this time," I add with a small, victorious smirk.

"Gary?" Garrus asks with confusion and a small amount of horror.

"Yep, your name has just been humanized!" I explain with a grin.

"Gary?" the turian repeats and Wrex chuckles at his expanse.

"Humanizing names?" Tali asks curiously. "Can you humanize Tali?"

I give a lazy shrug. "It's a hobby. And..." I pause and think for a second. "well, I can't really humanize Tali. It's okay as it is."

"And Wrex?" Shepard asks bemusedly.

I give Wrex a long look, which he returns with eagerness. I look back at Shepard with some horror. "You think I'm insane? He'd punch me if I do that," I say incredulously, getting a rough chuckle out of the krogan. "Besides, Wrex is cool enough already. Doubt I could make it cooler even if I wanted to," Wow, Wrex looks a bit smug as he looks at Garrus.

With an annoyed scoff Garrus picks up his cards. "That's it. You're going down. I got a flush," he reveals his cards with victorious flair.

Immediately, my grin grows wider and Kaidan let's out a defeat sigh and reveals his two pairs. Tali has two pairs as well, so she's out too. Garrus looks at me expectantly and after a few seconds realizes that I'm not out yet. By the growing realization on his face I know that he knows that he's utterly screwed, and my grin only grows bigger.

With dramatic flair I reveal my cards. "Eat this! Full house, hah!" Oh, the joy I feel as I see Garrus' happy little world crumbling around him. Well, he looks a bit disappointed, that's all. Still, it's very satisfying.

Sadly, my grin falters when I see that Shepard and Wrex are still in the game. More importantly, Shepard's small, sly smirk. Aw, shit. With a nasty chuckle Wrex shows his cards. "Four of a kind," he smugly announces.

To my horror, Wrex's smirk was wiped off his face when Shepard's smirk turned into a full-blown grin. Fuck, this is impossible! "Royal flush!" Shepard announced with a laugh and collected the small pile of credit chits, a couple of MRE's, a dextro food-paste tube and added them to her already significant pile.

"Fuck! Impossible!" I growl. "No one can be this good!"

"Hah, you're all too young to play against me and hope to win. Yes, even you, Wrex," she says with a grin as she starts counting the credits she won, her words getting Wrex to let out a brief laugh. Heh, seems like he's having fun.

I fold my arms on my chest and send her a halfhearted glare. "Gee, Commander. That was a dirty move. You basically gathered us here to rob us of our money. Or in Garrus' case, his food _and_ money," I say.

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I'm not the only one sending her a glare. I think I'm not the only one who noticed how she robbed us. Wrex doesn't seem to mind at all, in fact he's actually grinning. Shepard lets out a nervous laugh. "Hey, I didn't force you to play! I just suggested a game and you all agreed!"

Damn it, she has a point. Still, if I knew how good she is – or how good she cheats – I would've never agreed to play in the first place. "Next time, let's watch a movie or something. Cheaper that way," I suggest and get a couple of nods, mainly from Garrus and Kaidan. Ah, poor Kaidan. The only things he has left are his clothes. She even took his omni-tool!

Shepard chuckles at our expense. "Another game?" she asks hopefully.

Garrus mutters something under his breath, and I think it's something angry, considering his tone. "I'm in. I have to win my food back, at least," he sighed.

"I'm in too. I need my omni-tool," Kaidan piped in, giving Shepard a dirty look.

"Nah, I'm out. The only things I have left are my clothes. I'm poor as it is," I say with a small chuckle as I stand up. I can't help but snort at the sight of the pouting Shepard and he disappointed look. "That won't work on me," I add as I leave the table.

"I'll replace him," I hear Ashley say. "Just give me a moment to remember how to play this thing. I'm a bit rusty..."

Well, now I'll probably get bored but at least I won't lose the rest of my money now. I take a look around, trying to find something to occupy myself with and my eyes land on Liara. She's watching the rest of the gang play but it's pretty obvious that she's not paying attention. She just stares at the table, barely even blinks and looks utterly lost to the outside world.

Hm, when I think of it, I haven't talked with Liara that much. I usually hang out with Garrus and Wrex, followed by Tali and Ashley. Well, I guess I might as well remedy that. I walk over to the asari and take a seat on the table she was leaning on. This still doesn't catch her attention so I clear my throat and speak. "You okay?" I ask, mentally wincing at the stupid question. Of course she's not okay. Her mother was brainwashed.

Liara blinks and looks at me in surprise. "Uh... what? You were saying something?" she asks, visibly embarrased.

I decide to say nothing about it, since she looks embarrassed enough as it is and repeat my question. "You okay?"

"I..." she says slowly, apparently trying to find something to say until she sighs and gives up. "I worry," she says quietly.

At that, I sigh as well. "About your mother?" I ask and she simply nods.

"If what we heard is true then... she's not herself anymore," Liara quietly elaborates. "If she is a willing slave will... will she fight us? Will she fight _me_?" the last part was said so quietly it sounded almost like a whisper.

I simply have no idea what to say. This is... this is really the first time I'm torn about my knowledge. I _know_ how this will go, I _know_ what will happen. But the problem is that I can't even _do_ anything about it. It's one of those cases where the knowledge is something is simply not enough. What can I say about this? Should I just... lie and give her false hope, only for it to be crushed when we finally face Benezia? "She's your mother... you should know better than me," I finally say, avoiding giving an opinion.

"But I don't," she replies weakly and I almost winced at that. Totally forgot about that. "my mother and I are... not very close. I have not spoken to her in _many_ years," she says and I detect some bitterness as she speaks. "If what Shiala said is true... I'm afraid she is not the person I knew anymore..."

Damn... I really don't have much to say. "Let's... hope you're wrong then," I finally say, and internally wince at the words. Fuck, I'll probably feel bad about this. Really bad.

Liara sighs and moves pushes herself away from the table. "I should go. I still have to decipher Shepard's prothean vision..." she explains quietly.

"Yeah... you do that," I say, unsure of what I could say anyway. I watch her as she quietly leaves the garage, unnoticed by the others, and disappears once the elevator doors close. I sigh again. She probably wants to be alone. I doubt anyone can actually work when they have something like this on their mind.

Wow. This is depressing. As far as I know, indoctrination is absolute. Got yourself indoctrinated? You're gone. That's it. No way back, save for death. There's just no point in even trying to come up with a way to save Liara's mother since by this point, we know just the bare minimum of the effect. In fact, we – and by we I mean everyone else – just discovered that it exists! As far as I know, there's just no way to help Benezia. I sigh again and decide to think about something else. I hate thinking about depressing things. It's... depressing.

Now that I think of it, I've had a small thought lingering and hanging around in my head for a while now, but I never got around to actually going through with it. I open my omni-tool to look through some messages, if I have any. The Chairman warned me, quite heatedly, not to change any major events so... either saving Fai Dan was nothing major in his books, or he was simply fucking with me to give me more problems. From what I know of the man, I wouldn't think that he's not up for it. I scroll down to the messages and...

Uh, _what?_

_You have 57 unread messages._

What the hell is this thing? How come I didn't know I had so many messages? What the hell is going on? I'm just gaping at the thing for a few seconds before I open them up. Okay... about fifty of them are from Jorrun, Johnson and surprisingly a few from Tilben. Curious, I open up one of them.

_'I am tired of Johnson's nonstop whining. If you do not respond to this message, I will have to believe you are dead.'_

What? They think I'm dead? Holy shit! How come my omni-tool didn't... 'blip' when I got the messages, like my old one did? I scroll down to the last message, which comes from the Chairman, open it up and see the first line.

_'UNMUTE. THE DAMN. OMNI-TOOL.'_

Uh, mute? I can mute this thing? How come it was already muted? How do I unmute the thing in the first place? Bah, I can figure this out later, I have a message to read right now.

_'Anyway, now that you FINALLY decided to check your mailbox (About damn time) I must congratulate you on failing the most simple of orders! Seriously, did you confuse something in that thing of yours that you call brain? When I said 'Don't change anything big' I fucking meant that you shouldn't change anything big! Like 'Saving Fai Dan' big, not 'Farting near Udina' big._

_Yes, yes, I know what you want to say. "But dear and benevolent Chairman! How can saving an innocent man like Fai Dan cause grave and apocalyptic changes?" Well, yeah. It can! Hopefully you didn't fuck this up _too_ much. Just hope that this will actually have positive results._

_And unmute the damn thing!_

_Your beloved Chairman'_

Wow. Just... wow. I have nothing to say to this. Heck, I can't even think of a proper response. Dear and benevolent? Beloved? Either this guy has a ego the size of a constellation, or he's just fucking around. I really hope it's the latter. Okay... let's see. How should I reply.

_'Relax! There's not way that this could cause the galaxy to implode, or let the Reapers win. I don't see you doing anything important anyway, so don't start complaining. I'm the one doing all the hard work without any proper guidance. If you feel like I'm doing something wrong, give me a fucking list of what I shouldn't change or something. You can't expect me to read your damn mind._

_Your extraordinary sort-of-employee-that-doesn't-get-paid.'_

Yeah, this should do it! This should tell him to stop complaining. He didn't give any specific instructions so if it's anyone's fault, it's his. I click on 'send' and smile to myself in satisfaction. That will show him. With that done, I look up the other messages and settle on the last one I got from Jorrun.

_'Guess what I heard when I visited Flux today? The bartender, out of nowhere, tells us you were looking for us the other day. That means you are alive, and too lazy to respond to your mail. Figures. Either way, we have some important shit to handle so..._

_CITADEL. NOW.'_

Okay, that sounds worrying. Important shit? Of what kind? Hm, sounds kinda ominous. Well... I guess I should actually check it out once I'm on the Citadel. I feel like an asshole for not telling them anything. Actually, I feel like beating myself up for doing something so stupid to begin with. "Commander!" I yell over the noise, tearing Shepard away from the game.

"What?" she yells back, not taking her eyes off of her 'victims'.

"We're heading to the Citadel, right? How long will it take us to get there?" I ask.

She was silent for a moment, as if she thinking about it, or she was too busy with the game to answer. "Yeah, about a day and a half, why?" this time she bothers to look at me questioningly.

"Good to know. I Just have some... issues I need to solve there. Nothing too serious," yeah. Issues was a fitting word.

I have absolutely no idea how Jorrun will react to this. I know Johnson is going to be annoyingly angry, Tilben will just say it's good to see me again, as if I wasn't gone for who knows how long, but Jorrun? Oddly enough, despite the fact that I know him better than Johnson or Tilben, I have absolutely no idea how he's going to react. I have the horrible gut feeling that he's not going to give me a bro hug. Jorrun doesn't do bro hugs. Shit, now I'm getting the feeling that he's going to shoot me once he sees me.

_'Got it. Be there in a day and a half or so. See you soon.'_

Okay, I think it's simple enough. I think I should explain everything face to face... if he doesn't shoot me that is. Either way, I'm going to explain the whole situation once I meet him. I guess I have a day and a half to prepare for the meeting... not that I need to prepare that much, really.

Well, now that I pretty much have nothing to do... I guess I'll go watch Shepard own everyone else in a card game. It's surprisingly pleasant to watch when I'm not the one who loses all his money. I think watching Garrus squirm and lose has become my new favorite past time.

I hope this will continue until we arrive to the Citadel, because watching Garrus lose another tube of dextro-paste is highly amusing.

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><p><strong>Yeah, I'm back again! By some miracle I managed to find some time to write. Sadly, the chapter is rather short but it's better than nothing, right?<strong>

**I guess you can understand what's going to be in the next chapter, right? Well, I'm not going to elaborate, but I hope that you will like it, since I certainly do.  
><strong>

**On a side note, I've took notice that some of my readers expressed... disappointment that my story no longer goes the same way as it did in the beginning (I.e, the product of my vast imagination, originality and ideas. That's to say, entirely made up by me) and now became... "boring" (I.e, the usual events that happen in the game, that is everything you already played through and read in all the other SI's). While I partly agree that this can be called 'boring' (You've read it several times already in the various SI fics, as did I) this is a very essential part of the story as a whole, and I can't just skip it, since that will be silly, lame and unprofessional of me. But really, you honestly expect me to have just one burst, one spark of originality in the beginning of the story and then have nothing left? If you do, I'm really disappointed in you, since apparently you don't know me at all! Because I still have a shitload of inspirational ammo!  
><strong>

**Just think about this: After the events of ME1 there are two years... two, whole, years. You think that I have nothing to fill them with? Well, think again because I have one _hell of a ride_ planned out! I'm getting giddy just thinking about it. So yeah, I have some awesomely interesting things planned for the future, so you can wait a little bit, enjoy the story (I'm told the story is very enjoyable) and soon enough the story will once again become 'interesting' or whatever you may call it.**

**Once my workload lessens, which will be around the 20th of the next month, I will once again be able to fully commit myself to the story. So now, I have an exam in two days. Exam in Russian language. Let me tell you something, if you think English is hard, think again. Russian is fucking complicated and I'm not ashamed at the least to admit that I don't understand a thing about it. If I pass this exam, it will be a miracle. So wish me luck... or pray for a miracle, dunno. Do as you wish. :P  
><strong>

**And so, thank you for reading the story! 27 chapters and some of you have been here since the very first day! Thank you very much! You make me feel awesome. Feel free to tell me what you think of this chapter, or the story as a whole. Either constructive criticism or just your opinion, doesn't matter, really. So yeah, thanks for reading again! I'll try to get the next chapter as soon as I can. Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Yay! I'm back with another chapter! Well, my lovely readers, I'm glad to announce that my exams are over. While I most likely failed the math exam (the horror) and maybe even failed the Russian exam (Ironic) I'm very sure I passed the English exam with an 80+ score (Hence why the second one is ironic).**

**So yeah, I still might have to retake the exams later, but for now I have some free time. I still have to take my diploma exam later this month, but since I know what I have to do and I'm pretty confident of my knowledge of the subject, I'm sure I'll pass.**

**Anyway, back to topic, this chapter is not a very long one, but still longer than the last one. Not that it matters, really. So without anymore delays, here's the new chapter! Enjoy!  
><strong>

**Oh, before I forget (I actually forgot, and this is an edit...), I noticed the new Story Cover feature that they added. Since I am admittedly a shitty artist (my drawings from when I was 13 are better than what I can manage now) if you want to, or bored enough, feel free to maybe, I dunno, create one for this story? I'd be very, very grateful. Not to mention that I will feel like the most awesome thing in the world since duct tape.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>I yawn again, for probably the tenth time, as I walk over to our small kitchen where our resident chef, Raymond Dufour, had the 'breakfast' already prepared. I'm actually a bit surprised to see the food there, since according to my clock it was very early, around five in the morning last time I checked.<p>

I mentally groan at that. I can't believe that I somehow managed to get somewhat used to living without a proper day-night cycle. Not to mention the fact that a Citadel hour consisted of a hundred minutes... so technically I've been losing sleep anyway. Even though there wasn't a day-night cycle on the Citadel, there were still some easy ways to discern time. While the station was _always_ bustling with activity, the number of people outside still decreased slightly and the TV programs are less shitty.

On the Normandy on the other hand... everything is fucked up. There's no day or night, just shifts and the only thing I can rely on was my clock. I either sleep too much, or I don't sleep at all. Utterly confusing for my poor brain. Damn, I can't believe I'm actually missing the sun. As much as I hate that bright ball of evil, it had some uses.

"Mornin'," I yawn out greeting to the cook. Dufour was a middle aged man with dark hair and some wrinkles on his face, which only deepened when he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Up so early?" he asks with some wonderment, already reaching for a tray to fill with food. He has a little bit of an accent, french, I think, with the way he pronounces the 'R', but it's not very noticeable. I guess from years of serving on ships reduced his accent. I think my own accent is less noticeable by now, though it's still there.

"Can't get used to the lack of a day-night cycle," I complain. Hey, he asked anyway. I might as well complain a bit. No one else cared anyway.

The cook chuckles to himself. "You get used to it eventually. Don't worry, it took me a while too," he assures and hands me my food tray.

"Well, I hope eventually comes sooner than later. I want to sleep properly," I say with another yawn as I grab my tray and go grab myself a seat. I don't really care what he gave me to eat, as long as it was edible. Thankfully, Dufour was a pretty good cook, so everything he made was more than edible.

As I'm about to take a bite out of the meat – which I hope didn't come from a varren – I hear someone call my name. "Yo, Alex," I turn my head and see Doug the marine approach me and crash onto the seat in front of me. "You're up unusually early," he remarks.

Doug was in his twenties, just a few years older than me and, oddly enough, was one of the few marines stationed on the Normandy who bothered to actually know my name. At first it didn't really bother me but after a while I came to a conclusion. Just the simple fact that I was part of Shepard's squad alienated me from the rest of the marines. She's _Commander Shepard_ and I, some rookie bouncer from some shady club, got be on her squad, despite the fact that they were trained soldiers with actual experience. I can't blame them for being annoyed with that. I still have some trouble believing that I'm on Shepard's squad.

Of course, not everyone was annoyed by that, Doug being one of them. He introduced himself to me one lunch after we finished with Therum and asked me to tell him how it was working with the Commander. One thing lead to another, and after a while we just started talking about random stuff. He was actually quite fun to hang out with. On the other hand, his jokes suck... and he jokes a lot. Unfortunately.

I take a bite out my meat and chew it slowly, just to let the guy squirm. That what he gets for speaking with me so early in the morning with his damn cheery persona! Doug looked like the average soldier: a buzz cut, military fatigues and a fit body. He had brown eyes and a small scar above his left eyebrow. But what made him stand out, was the bright, almost goofy, smile that he seemed to constantly show. I'm not a morning person, so seeing someone happy so early in the morning was one of the most vehement sins I could ever witness.

Not a well-known fact: Saying good morning to a random person in Russia, especially early in the morning, is a good way to get yourself punched out.

I swallow my food and finally look at him. "If you're going to say good morning, I will punch you," I greet him. I might as well uphold the now-ancient Russian tradition.

"Not a morning person, eh?" he chuckles. "So why'd you wake up so early? Eager to get to the Citadel?"

I give him a blank stare. "I'm bursting from the excitement," I say with the most monotonous voice I could achieve. Ugh, if I know Jorrun, and I know him, he's definitely pissed. I'm not looking forward to it but alas, I can't just run away from him forever. If I do, he will definitely shoot me. "No proper sleep cycle," I say, hoping it will be enough to explain.

Doug nods in understanding. "I've seen it before, usually with the guys who serve on ships for their first time. You'll get used to it soon," he says, repeating the cook's words without knowing it. He leans back in his chair and folds his arms behind his head. "Either way, I can't wait to get my shore leave. I've been itching for a drink for a while now and we're planning on going to one of the clubs or something. I don't think the guys mind if you join us," he suggests with a grin.

I let out a sigh. I wouldn't mind a drink but sadly, it seems I won't get one. "Sorry. Got some... business to do today. I don't think I'll have any time for a drink," I say with another sigh.

"Poor guy," Doug laments, shaking his head. "It's a sad day when someone can't have a drink."

I can only agree with that. Sad day indeed. "Well, I should go now. Got stuff to do," I say and quickly shovel down the remainder of my food. Now that my stomach is filled I can go and do... whatever I have to do, which is not much. Wow, I'm gonna be bored soon.

"Yeah, you do that, My break is ending anyway," he mutters, waving me away. One thing I'll never understand is why we have guard duty on the ship for all times. What's there to guard? The fridge?

I get up from the table and make my way back to the elevator, greeting the occasional familiar crew member whose name I actually knew. I'm actually surprised at how many crew members originate from Russia or around it. Lot's of Russian names here. I'm also a bit embarrassed that I'm probably the only Russian with an accent here, which is a bit annoying. No one pointed that out much, thankfully.

Let's see... what do I have to do? Correction, what _can _I do? I can always wonder about whether the Chairman is insane or just being an asshole until I get a headache, or I can wonder about what I can do about Liara's mother, but this will end up with me being depressed from being unable to do anything. I can also try to come up with a decent plan for Virmire, but so far I'm coming empty and I'll just give myself another headache.

Damn, this is simply unbelievable. I'm in space – which is freaking amazing as far as I'm concerned – on one of the most advanced ships in the galaxy, if not_ the_ most advanced – which is even more awesome, since I'm on the freaking Normandy – and I have absolutely nothing to do. How does something like this happen? When I decided to join the Normandy, boredom was the last thing on my mind, but here I am, utterly bored.

Well, I could do something productive, like practicing my hacking skills or trying to learn more about my new shotgun. Or... I could play that nifty omni-game that looks like a Total War game. I do need the practice if I plan to beat Garrus, which has become somewhat of an ambition of mine. Wiping that smug smirk off his face would feel _so_ good.

I step out of the elevator into the garage and go to my favorite spot – the table Ashley uses to clean the rifles. However, to my surprise I find it already occupied by a certain quarian. I raise an eyebrow at the sight of Tali, not because she took my favorite spot but mostly because she's up so early. Well, I guess I should ask her that question, since I'm bored as it is.

I walk over to Tali while she is sitting on my spot, fiddling with her omni-tool, doing something that looked like... constructing a program? I shrug it off. That was levels beyond me. I was still learning how to unlock a door. "Good morning," I say awkwardly, mostly because it was taboo to say that word so early. The sound of my voice causes Tali to flinch and look at me in surprise.

"Oh! I didn't see you," she says, a bit awkwardly. "you're unusually early... did something happen?"

"I can say the same thing to you," I say with a small smile. "And no, nothing happened. Couldn't sleep. My whole sleeping cycle is..." I try to find a proper word for that, even add a hand gesture that I thought would explain things, but in the end I just end up making a weird waving motion with my hand. "Messed up," I finally say. "I grew up on Earth so it's kinda hard to get used to live without a sun, if you know what I mean," I say and as soon as the words leave my mouth I want to beat myself for saying it. Of course she doesn't know what I mean. She never lived on a planet before.

Thankfully, she doesn't show any outward reaction to it so she probably wasn't offended, or she simply hid it well. "I've heard about it. I also heard you'll eventually get used to it, but I wouldn't know," the last part was said in utter monotone which causes me to internally wince.

"Sorry," I mutter awkwardly. "So why are _you_ up so early?" I ask, trying to change the subject and sate my curiosity.

"Couldn't sleep," was her simple reply. "It's too quiet..."

Oh! I remember this conversation! I lean on the locker next to me to make myself more comfortable. "Too quiet?" I ask, playing along, even though I already knew this conversation. Hey, it's possible that it will go differently because I'm not Shepard.

"The ships of the Migrant Fleet are anything but silent. If it's as quiet on the ship as it is here, it probably means that something is no longer working. The air filters could've broke down, life-support is no longer online and so on..." she explained.

I have to admit that now that I remember this conversation, I can notice how quiet it really is. Other than the low hum coming from the drive core, almost like a background noise, there is nothing else. I can almost hear myself breathing. Since it's actually the first ship I'm one, I didn't really know what to expect. Now that I know, I think I'll actually notice the difference when I'll be on another ship. "Well, with that kind of description, I can see why you have trouble sleeping," I finally say.

She let out a humorless chuckle. "I keep waking up with the urge to check the air filters."

Huh, that's definitely uncomfortable. I'm kinda glad I don't have these complications in my already sleep-deprived nights. "Have you tried speaking with Shepard? Maybe she can put you somewhere more... noisy?"

"No, I don't want to bother her. She has enough things to worry about without me adding something so small to it," she says.

I raise an eyebrow at that. Huh, how kind of her, caring about Shepard's problems. "Small? If you can't sleep you'll be tired and that won't be good on a mission," I point out.

Tali actually scoffs at that. "Please. As if a little lack of sleep will slow me down. Besides, I don't see _you_ complaining to Shepard about not getting sleep," she finishes with a crippling blow to my argument.

"Good point," I concede. "Still, I bet you'll get used to it eventually," I say, trying to remember if she said anything about it in the second game. From what I recall, I think she said that she actually missed the quietness of the Normandy, so I guess she got more than used to it.

"Probably," she agrees and we fall into silence.

"Hm, can't say I actually noticed the quiet until you pointed it out to me," I remark, breaking the oppressing silence. It really _is_ quiet here! "This is only the second ship I've been on, so I guess I'm not... attuned to these things," I lied. I can't just say that it's the first ship I'm on, since it will raise some weird questions.

"Can't say I know for sure. You guys are the first humans I actually got to know, but I think you're right. I was taught from childhood how a ship works and how to notice when something's wrong with it. By now it's a subconscious act," she say and by the tone of her voice I can easily guess she's more than a bit proud of herself.

It is a bit impressive. Well, more than a bit impressive. I barely know the minimum of how a ship actually works. Correction: I don't know a thing about it. To be able to identify a problem just from how something sounded while working or something like that was damn impressive for me. And so, I let out an impressed whistle. "That's pretty awesome," I say earnestly. "By the time _I_ will notice something's wrong, there will probably a hull in the bulkhead or something," I finish with a chuckle.

She joined in, though hers was less amused. "I think everyone will be relieved to know that you're not in charge of damage control," She quips and returns her attention back to her omni-tool, which was still activated and doing... whatever it was doing.

Ouch. That was a low blow. Never thought that Tali would diss the poor, technologically inept member of the crew, that is, me. It's not my fault I was born a century and a half too early for these things! "So... you got anything planned on the Citadel today?" I ask, expertly – in my opinion – changing the subject. It kinda sucks when we talk about how much I suck at something.

"No. I'm thinking about staying here this time. Why?" she asks, looking at me from her screen.

"Just asking. I've got some business there today," I shrug. I know that Shepard is definitely going, to buy supplies as far as I know, and I know that Garrus is going too, to do whatever he does there. I guess he's checking something out in C-sec or something. I guess everyone has things to do.

Tali hums in thought, though I'm not sure whether she hums at what I said or to the omni-tool. And then, without any warning whatsoever, she abruptly stands up. "I knew it!" she says to herself, practically shaking from excitement. I don't really know how to react to this, or what's even going on, so I just stare at her. Apparently, she remembers that I'm here and looks at me, somewhat sheepishly if I'm reading the body language right. "Sorry. I just found a way to improve the drive core's efficiency by ten percent!" she says excitedly, almost jumping with joy.

I blink owlishly at her. "That's... good, right?" I slowly say, admittedly confused.

She sighs with obvious disappointment at my lack of reaction. "Yes. Yes, it's good," she sighs out. "Look, I... uh, I have to show this to Engineer Adams, so I guess I will see you later today," and with that, without another word, Tali practically runs off into the engineering deck and disappears behind the door before I could even say a word.

Okay, I guess she's a lot more excited than I first thought. I can kinda see why she's so excited. I heard her praise the ship more than a few times and more than once she said the Normandy was the most advanced ship she ever saw. The fact that she could, and actually did improve something in the most advanced ship around was something awesome for her. I'm happy for her, sure, even though I don't really understand a thing about it. Good for her.

Well, this brought me back to my initial problem. I have absolutely nothing to do now that Tali is gone. I guess I'll go with my original plan and figure out more about my shotgun. Ash was pretty adamant that I should learn more about my weapons... and she did promise to teach me how to modify my weapons by myself, so I guess I have a good incentive to learn how a mass accelerator weapon works. Reducing the shotgun's recoil would be very, very good for me.

I take out the shotgun out of my locker, unfold it and grab Ashley's tool to start taking the weapon apart. I press a few buttons on my omni-tool and scan the weapon, which soon gives me a list of components, various statistics – half of which I've never seen before – and all other information about the weapon. Heh, this thing is freaking useful and even after so much time using it, I'm still getting surprised by it's efficiency. As afterthought, I access my music playlist and choose a random song. I might as well listen to some music. It should make the tinkering less boring.

* * *

><p>"Come on! What's taking him so long?" I whine in annoyance. I don't usually complain this much, but Garrus is really pushing it.<p>

Shepard rolled her eyes as she leaned on the wall by the airlock. "Relax, he'll be here in a moment. Why are you in such a hurry anyway?" she asks.

"I have a meeting with a friend and he's pissed off enough without me wasting more time until Garrus gets here," I reply with a sigh. What the hell is he doing? Callibrations? Most likely, but this is ridiculous. Okay, it's only been ten minutes, but when somebody says that they'll be here now, I'd like them to be here _now_.

I look back to the CIC and finally spot the turian's blue C-Sec armor. He just casually walks over to the airlock, pointedly ignoring the glare I'm sending him. Bloody ass, doesn't even care that he made us wait. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting," he drawls as he walks over to us.

I'm about to say what's on my mind but a pointed look from Shepard makes me change my mind. "Not much," she says in my stead and leads us out of the ship.

"Finally," I mutter under my breath. Jorrun might be a bit pissed at me, but I can't deny that I'm a bit excited about seeing him again. I haven't seen him in months! Not to mention Lucy and the rest of the gang.

I don't wear my armor again but I did take my handgun with me, just in case something happens. For all I know, Saren could send assassin's after us! Actually, I would've taken more than a pistol, maybe my rifle too, but I don't have a permit for it and I doubt that Shepard's Spectre status could allow me to bring even more weapons with me. I didn't ask though, so I might be wrong.

We pass through the C-Sec checkpoint, Garrus and Shepard passing through without any problems and with a warm greeting in the former's case, while I got questioned about my pistol until Shepard told them I'm with her. I don't get it, do I look suspicious or something? This is bloody annoying! This is a horrible reminder that despite being part of Shepard's crew, I'm still a nobody that has to be checked for weapons. How depressing.

We leave the C-Sec academy and make out way to the wards. We decide against going to the presidium, since we have nothing to do there today so instead, we're going supply-shopping in the wards. As soon as we walk out of the corridor into the familiar market area, I'm greeted by a more-than-familiar sight.

A turian, dressed in black clothes with white markings on his face, leaning against the wall in front of us. He looks up and his eyes landed on me and his mandibles position themselves into the turian smile. I find myself grinning back as I start walking over to my friend. "Joe!" I call needlessly, but I just had to say it. My shout caught the attention of my companions and they followed me, probably out of curiosity. I walk over to him, holding my arms at my sides in a friendly greeting. I would've yelled something fitting like 'Cousin!' but decide against it, since the meaning would be lost on everyone. I finally reach him and I'm about to pat him on the shoulder, shake his hand, or something but all my plans are ruined with one action.

A vicious punch hits me on the side of my face. The attack is so unexpected for me that I don't even have time to balance myself. I trip and fall to the floor, head bouncing off of it painfully.

As soon as I landed I heard the telltale sound of unfolding weapons. Huh, it's a bit weird how I can recognize the sound of unfolding weapons by now. I rub my aching jaw and clear out my slightly blurred vision by blinking a few times.

I look up at Jorrun and see that he's not smiling anymore. Shepard and Garrus are pointing their guns at him, not that he seems to be concerned about it, and we're starting to cause a scene. People are quickly moving away and more than several made some distance between us and them but stayed to watch this event unfold. Shit, I have to stop this before the shit hits the fan.

"Shit, you got rusty, or developed a glass jaw. A punch like this never dropped you before," Jorrun says conversationally, as if he didn't just punch me in the face. I rub my jaw one more time and have to admit that he's right.

I snort at that. "You caught me by surprise," I say as I get back on my feet. "otherwise you would've missed," I add with a small smirk.

"Mind telling me why you assaulted a member of my crew?" Shepard coldly asks, her gun still aimed at Jorrun's head.

He scoffs loudly at that and looks at me. "Would you mind telling me why when I get back to the Citadel I have to find the Den in pieces, Fist with a hole in his chest, over half of our men either dead or scattered and with you suddenly joining _a Spectre_ of all things? The same Spectre that wrecked the den in the first place?" He lists off. "Oh, and you missed my wedding."

I raise an eyebrow at that. They already got married? Why the hell am I only hearing about this now? "I didn't get an invitation," I point out.

"No, but I would've loved to hear you whine about it," he says with a hint of disappointment. "You wouldn't have made it anyway. We got married back on Earth," he added with a shrug.

By this point Shepard and Garrus probably realized that we're not going to kill each other and lowered their guns. The spectators probably came to the same conclusion and started going back to their previous businesses, though some still stood there, probably hoping we would start a freaking firefight or something. Or maybe I just have little faith in people. "I take it you know each other," Shepard concluded.

"Sadly, yes," Jorrun responds before I could say anything. "this clown would be dead by now if it wasn't for me," Oh, you did _not_ go there! I think I need to reminds him about Norus. Sadly, as I'm about to say just that, he gives me a heated glare and interrupts me. "Now, would you mind telling me what in the spirits possessed you to chase after Saren fucking Arterius?" he asks me and then finally looks at my companions.

"And Garrus Vakarian? You work with damn C-Sec now?" he asks incredulously as he looks at me questioningly. "Didn't he stalk you for a week or so? What the fuck were you thinking?" he says in frustration and rubs his temples. Then he looks at Shepard and stares at her for several seconds. Shepard, oddly enough, fidgets slightly under his gaze and raises a questioning eyebrow. Jorrun then nods to himself. "Still..." he slowly says and looks back at me. "I have to say that I approve. Not bad. Not bad at all. About damn time you started skirt-chasing. Apparently you just have high standards! And I here I was starting to think you're actually gay."

And at this point, I can only stare at him while my poor brain tries to process the last words. I think Shepard mirror's my expression since she looks very, very confused, along with Garrus, but his expression pretty much asks 'what the hell?'. My brain finally started working again and registers the last thing he said to me. "Oh, fuck you," I shoot back. Not the wittiest thing I can come up with, but the only thing I could say in such a short notice.

Shepard still looks a bit confused. "Uh, thanks... I guess," she says awkwardly, looking at Jorrun suspiciously.

Jorrun chuckles to himself. "You're welcome! I'm a married man though, so don't get any ideas," he says smugly.

Okay, I need to stop this before Jorrun's ego grows to the size of a planet. He's obviously enjoying himself. "Okay, enough of this. Is there a reason you actually bothered to wait for me here?"

"Besides the opportunity to punch you? Yes," he says with a smirk before it vanishes with all the smugness and humor. He takes a look around, glancing suspiciously at the people still watching us, before he turned back to me. "Let's go to a more... private place. Or talk as we walk," and with that he walks off without giving us another glance.

I look at Shepard and Garrus and get a shrug in return. Well, I guess they are curious. Wordlessly they follow me as I follow Jorrun. Huh, it feels a bit weird to be take the lead like this. "Is there a reason why we can't talk here?" I ask once I catch up with him as he leads us to the lower wards.

"You humans have a saying, 'The walls have ears'. I happen to agree with it," he replies quietly, eying the people around us. Okay, is it me or does Jorrun is acting more paranoid than usual? "It's not safe to stay in the open like this."

"Why all the secrecy?" Shepard asks, walking by my side.

"Commander Shepard," he begins. "I'll assume that you'd want me to get to the point, so I'll do exactly that. You have no idea how much you fucked up thing by killing Fist," he says bluntly.

Shepard looks rather surprised by that. "He tried to stop me from getting the evidence I needed. Didn't have much a choice in that matter. I stop him from bothering me, or I let Saren get away with his crimes," she explained with a frown.

"He would've died anyway," Jorrun replies boringly. "The moron betrayed the Shadow Broker. _The Shadow Broker_. You're just the one who got to him first. So no hard feelings, at least from me," he elaborates, unknowingly relieving me of one of my worries. It would've sucked if Jorrun wanted to avenge our former employer. "But no. If he was killed by someone from the Shadow Broker things would've been better... but nope. No such luck for us," he sighed and finally entered an alley, coincidentally the same alley where we rescued Tali, and leaned against one of the walls.

Shepard is still frowning. "Elaborate," she says shortly, folding her arms in front of herself.

"When you killed Fist, and over half of his men, you didn't just kill a crime lord. You killed a whole friggin' network and by that extent, you wounded other networks as well. Informers, business partners, sources of income, hard-working men and women," at this Garrus snorts loudly but Jorrun ignores him. "all lost to us."

"So I toppled a crime-lord and his network. I don't see the problem," Shepard states, utterly unimpressed.

At this Jorrun smirks. "Other than me being broke, there are other problems that you unknowingly caused. After the whole thing calmed down, most of our guys joined the other crime-lords and there were even some... conflict about some of our 'resources'. But no, that's not the real problem," he then looks at me. "Remember the Blue Suns that came with my brother?"

I nod, "Yeah. Hard to forget, if you ask me."

"Yeah. Apparently they weren't here for me. I was just a convenient... bonus. Basically, they tried setting a foothold but with all the crime-lords of the Citadel stopping them from doing that, they didn't have much success with that. At least... until Shepard destroyed the balance," he finished grimly. "With the other crime-lords picking up what was left out of Fist's network and fighting each other, the Blue Suns came out of nowhere, dealt some serious damage to all the crime-lords and entrenched themselves so deep it would take a fucking excavator to kick them out."

"The Blue Suns are illegal in Citadel space," Garrus points out. "how could they get so far?"

Jorrun shakes his head in disappointment and looks at me with a tired look. "And you kept wondering why I thought everyone in C-Sec were blind idiots," he says with a roll of his eyes.

"Why not let C-Sec handle it?" Shepard asks with the same frown she wore for the past five minutes. At least she didn't show any reaction at Jorrun's quip about C-Sec. A fight is the last thing I want here.

Jorrun lets out a mocking laugh. "C-Sec? And what are they going to do? Sue them? Hold them in the cells for a night before letting them go? Other than being part of the Blue Suns, they hadn't done anything illegal. C-Sec won't do shit."

I decide to interrupt before this grows into an argument about C-Sec. "So what's going on? The last message I got from you sounded urgent," I say, diverting the topic to the present.

Jorrun cleared his throat at that. "Yeah, it's urgent alright. Since C-Sec can't be bothered to do anything useful, we're taking matters into our own hands. We're planning to kick them out. We might not have legit jobs, but we sure as hell won't let some Blue Suns punks steal our business," he finished with a vicious turian grin. I can't help but grin as well. Never expected Jorrun to be so... passionate about defending our business. "So if you don't mind, I'll be stealing your crew member for a few hours," he says to Shepard.

Shepard keeps frowning for a few moments as she thinks it through but then she smirks. "No need to. Count me in," she states in a manner that told everyone she won't take a no as an answer.

My eyebrow shot up as I look at Shepard incredulously. Garrus and Jorrun have relatively the same reaction, but where Jorrun looks simply surprised, Garrus looks scandalized. "Commander, we have a mission, we can't just -" he begins but Shepard interrupts him.

"Garrus, I'm partially responsible for this," she states.

"Shepard, they're criminals," Garrus replies, as if that explains everything.

"So? The Blue Suns are the bigger threat if they will be left alone and I'm _still_ responsible for this mess. Besides," she looks at me with a small smirk. "I help out my crew." she finishes and looks at Garrus. Said turian looks awfully conflicted about the whole thing. He remains silent and his eyes move between Shepard, Jorrun and finally me. After what seemed like the longest minute in my life he finally sighs in defeat and we take it as a sign that he agrees with the whole thing. "Good!" Shepard announces cheerfully. "We're in."

For the first time since the conversation started Jorrun actually looks lost and entirely confused. "Uh, that wasn't in the plan," he says to himself, scratching his fringe with a talon. "I kinda hoped to get Alex and that's it. I never expected to get the help of a Spectre of all things," he paused there, humming to himself thoughtfully. "I guess we'll need all the help we can get. I can't guarantee that they'll be happy to see you, especially if you take C-Sec with you, but I can promise that none of my guys will do anything about it," he finishes with a nod.

I'm still a little speechless here. Shepard agreed to help me deal with my problems. Holy fucking shit. I didn't see it coming. By the nine hells, is this my loyalty mission? Damn, I'm feeling awesomely awesome right now. "Good to know. Where do you need us?" Shepard asks.

"Alex can tell you that," Jorrun replies and turns to me, looking more excited than usual. "When you're ready come to the warehouse we used to train," at that I give him a nod, letting him know I knew where to go. "In that case, I should be going. I'll need to warn the others that you're coming. Don't want them to shoot you or something," and with that he turns to leave.

"What, that's it?" Shepard asks with a raised eyebrow. "Just like that? You're not worried that I might send C-Sec after you now that I know where you are?"

Jorrun pauses and looks back at her. "Nope. Alex trusts you and despite common sense, I trust him," he says with a small smirk and turns away, moving further into the alley until he disappears from view.

What an ass. Always has to put in another jibe at my expense before leaving. Still, I'm a bit flattered that he admitted aloud that he trusts me. Garrus looks pissed at what Jorrun said but at least he doesn't seem too pissed. Just disgruntled.

"Hm. You have a nice friend," Shepard remarks casually.

"Yeah... Jorrun can be... interesting," I slowly say. "Uh, thanks," I say awkwardly. I'm immensely flattered at the moment. She didn't have to, but she agreed to help us, which is awesome.

"Don't mention it. Now let's go get our stuff and go meet your friends," she says cheerfully, giving me a bright smile before she leads us out of the alley and back to the Normandy.

"Uh, can we go the checkpoint with all our weapons?" I ask curiously.

Shepard scoffs with humor. "I'm a Spectre. I can do whatever I want," she says smugly. "It even says so in the rule book!"

I scrunch my brow in confusion. "You have a rule book?" I ask, honestly interested.

"No, but you don't need to know that... so forget what I said," she says mischievously with a wink and I find myself chuckling.

I look at Garrus, mostly in curiosity. He looks rather upset, but not in an angry way. More upset in the disappointed, annoyed way. I can understand him to some extent though. He's a cop, and now he has to work with the people he would've arrested on any other day... or shot dead. Depends on the situation, I guess. Still, I guess I need to cheer him up, or at least make sure he won't be too upset to cooperate with 'hard working men and women', as Jorrun put it.

"Garrus?" I start.

"Yes?" he responds without looking at me as we move through the markets back to the C-Sec academy.

"Are you going to pout?"

"Oh, just shut up."

* * *

><p><strong>And this is it! Heh, I can already see your responses! 'Oh, joy! Jorrun and the gang are back in the story!'. Yes, yes they are. While you have to wait, I can already see that the next chapter is going to be awesome, at least for me so I guess I'm lucky that I know everything, right? So keep waiting, for a bit at least. Next chapter is going to be here soon.<strong>

**Ooh, just to be random (I wasnt random enough for the past week) I'm still incredibly pissed at how hard it is to get a new character for the ME3 Multiplayer. Why the fuck is it so hard to get a bloody geth or a vorcha? Sure, I got the newest male quarian infiltrator (which is my new favorite class by the way, since it absolutely ROCKS) but it's still bloody rarer than rare. Which pisses me off! And I'm sure it pisses you off too!**

**Oh, and it took me freaking AGES to finish the last two pages of this chapter. Mostly it's because I got back to playing League of Legends (oh, do tell me if you play this game, I'd like to have at least one game without getting teamed up with retards, and I'm sure you know that feeling too) but I promise that I'll lay down my LoL addiction to write more. It's a promise!  
><strong>

**Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, and story in general. You're awesome. Really, you are. Feel free to leave a comment or a review once you're done. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, since it helps me make the story better. Also, do feel free to point out any errors or flaws that you spot, I'd be grateful if you did. Still, thanks for reading and supporting the story!  
><strong>

**Until next time, Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	29. Chapter 29

**Hello procrastinators! (I always wanted to say that... since monday). I'm awfully glad to announce that I passed all my exams! I even passed the math exam, by sheer miracle, but I still passed! Yay for me. I'm awesome like that. Haven't studied properly for 3 years... still pass the exams. Aye, that's me.**

**Now, I have to note that this is the longest chapter I wrote so far! Another yay for me. I also have to admit that according to my erratically chaotic updating schedule, I would've finished this chapter during the last weekend, but due to some unexpected issues, like having to format my pc, several diploma exam meetings and stuff, I did it only now. Not to mention that at first I planned to split this chapter in half but then decided that this arc has gone on long enough and a longer chapter will be a nice way of saying thank you.**

**So yeah, here is the newest chapter, enjoy it!**

* * *

><p>"Oh, come on! Would you stop complaining?" I finally snap at Garrus. "It's just a single, short job. The mercs are a much bigger threat anyway. Just imagine what they could do if we leave them alone!" Not to mention that he's going to be slaughtering them by the dozens somewhere around next year, but that's a different story. As Joker said, he still has that stick up his ass.<p>

"Sure, I can understand that, but you're forgetting I'm a cop. I've probably arrested some of them once, or at least tried to. What's stopping them from getting even?" Garrus shoots back. I look at him as if he's stupid and point at Shepard, who looks more amused than concerned about the situation. Garrus rolls his eyes, rather dramatically at that. "There are just three of us and a warehouse full of people who would want me dead," he points out. I keep pointing at Shepard.

"I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, I really do, but I doubt I can handle a full warehouse," she says with a small smile. I turn to look at her, and keep pointing at her. This gets her to chuckle goodheartedly. "Let's just settle on hoping it won't come to testing your faith in me."

I chuckle at that too. I'm not really sure, but I guess that Shepard actually can handle a whole warehouse of mercs. In the Arrival DLC of the second she did... well, she will tear through a freaking base full of trained soldiers. Considering that most of the people in the warehouse, as far as I know at least, are just self-trained people, Shepard might have a chance!

So now we're approaching the warehouse after we took a skycar. We could've flown straight to the warehouse but I decided against it. What if they had sentries or something? Getting shot down from the sky would definitely suck. I'm not as scared of those things anymore, but I still have the worry that the thing might crash into a wall and kill everyone.

I have to admit that immensely enjoyed the looks on the C-Sec officer's face when our fully armed group passed through his checkpoint. Shepard just had to say the word 'Spectre' and they didn't even bother to stop us or ask why we brought so many weapons with us. I'm not surprised that Shepard had a very smug look on her face. I bet I had the same look on my face as well.

Garrus is still complaining and I'm pretty sure that if it could be physically possible – Garrus lacked lips – he would be pouting. While he did make some valid points, he was just being paranoid. I trust Jorrun and I'm sure he won't let anyone shoot Garrus or Shepard.

"Well... here we are," I say as we turn around the corner and the warehouse comes into view. It looks exactly the same, which included the usually feeling of solitude around the building. It was quiet and I couldn't see anyone around. For a second I think that I somehow got the wrong place but then I figure that everyone's probably inside. Placing sentries is kinda counterproductive. If there are sentries around a building, it must mean there's something worth guarding inside. We approach the door and I move over to the lock. "Okay... let's see if I still remember this..."

I place my helmet under my left armpit and punch in the password and the lock chimes pleasantly and the door slides open for us. I give them a glance before I lead them through the short corridor and into the warehouse. The door in the end of the corridor is unlocked so I just push the holographic button and enter inside.

And immediately upon doing so, I'm greeting by a very loud chorus of unfolding weapons and over twenty gun barrels pointed at me. I simply raise my hands up in panic. "Don't shoot!" I yelp in surprise.

"Easy there!" I hear a familiar voice cry over the large group in front of us. A few seconds later Jorrun breaks through the crowd to stand in front of us. "They're with us," he yells so everyone would hear him.

It takes a few seconds but soon enough everyone lowers their weapons. I try to make a quick headcount. There are around forty people in here and I don't recognize any of them so far, save for Jorrun. Speaking of Jorrun, I notice that he looks in a much better mood. Heck, he's practically glowing!

At that moment Garrus and Shepard step out from behind me into better view. I take notice that some of the people in front of us bristle nervously at their sight, but I'll bet that they're nervous about Shepard. "Shit... you weren't kidding," I hear someone say from the crowd, a human judging by the voice. "You really did get us a Spectre!" Ah, this explains why Jorrun looks so pleased and smug.

"And what a Spectre is is!" I hear another familiar voice say over the murmurs. I turn to see Johnson step out of the crowd, unsurprisingly followed by Tilben. "It's fucking Commander Shepard!" he exclaims, though there wasn't much animosity in his voice. In fact, he sounds happy and excited. "If we have her with us, this operation will be a walk in the park," he finishes with a chuckle.

Shepard looks slightly confused and surprised at that. "Uh, do I know you?" she asks awkwardly, ignoring the fact that everyone was paying attention to us.

"Nah, you probably don't remember me, but I sure as hell remember you! You save my ass back during the Skyllian Blitz!" he says with another chuckle as he walks closer to us. Wait, the Blitz? Johnson was there? "The damn pirates broke through our perimeter and took out almost everyone. I was lying on the floor, bleeding my guts out when out of nowhere, Shepard jumps out and tears through the whole freaking pirate platoon as if they were made out of soaked paper!" he barks out with a giant grin, loudly enough so everyone could hear him. "Hah, and then, after she killed every single pirate, she picks up one of the rifles and tosses it over to me, saying that if I still have my arms I should fucking use them!" he finishes and Shepard looks somewhat awkward at being put in the spotlight like this.

"You were there in the Blitz?" I find myself asking. Johnson turns to me and looks at me as if only now he noticed me.

"Yeah. I was one of the unlucky bastards stuck there on shore leave. I've got myself shot in the stomach a couple of times and went through the whole thing bleeding my fucking guts out," he says, grunting out the last part. "I retired after that. Too many damn holes in my body, as far as I'm concerned," he finishes and gives me a bright grin, extending his hand towards me. "Good to see you alive and kickin', kid."

I shake his hand with a grin of my own. "Likewise," I say. When Johnson was telling me he left after a batarian raid, I thought he meant a small, regular kind of raid, not the freaking Skyllian blitz! Damn, I'm impressed. I look at Tilben, who just looks at me impassively.

He sniffed. "Glad to see you in physical health," he greeted, giving me a nod. He wasn't really into all the handshaking business so I just return the nod, since it would be more than enough.

"Alright, that's enough for now. Follow me. We can talk there," Jorrun interrupts and pulls us away towards one of the small rooms in the warehouse. Almost everyone gives us a wide berth, opting to move the hell out of our way. I'm not sure if it's really because of Shepard, or because of Jorrun because now that I can take a better look, I see that some equally nervous glances are directed at the turian from the crowd.

And what a crowd it is. Humans, some salarians, some turians, even five krogan or so are milling about, talking with each other or checking their weapons. I could hear some music in the background, quiet enough to be able to speak normally and loud enough to still be heard above the combined voices of the group. I didn't know any of these guys, though I did spot a familiar face here and there, but I wasn't sure whether they worked for Fist or were just people I saw on the streets. I glance at my team and see that Shepard looks utterly unconcerned, actually managing to look bored, while Garrus is sending suspicious looks to here and there. I wait until we're further away from the crowd of armed people before I speak. "Hey, Joe," I ask quietly, getting a glare from him, the special one he only uses when I call him Joe. "where are all our guys?"

He snorts at that. "Dead or hiding," he replies, blunt as always. "There are about twelve of us left in total," he supplies, with an unsure shrug. "After your Commander and the Blue Suns finished with us, a lot of our guys either ran away or were already dead. Fist's 'Empire'" he used air-quotes here and gave me a pointed look, "is officially gone."

I wince at that. Something in his tone of voice tells me he partially blames me, and that look he gave me just now... "So who is in charge now?" I ask. I figure I already know the answer, but I'd like to hear it from him, since it's still possible for me to be wrong.

"Well, since I'm the one with the highest rank, technically this makes me the 'new' Fist... not that I'll use that lame name, but you get the point. Not that there's much to be in charge of. We have a single squad, maybe a few contacts left and a club in ruins," he says, somewhat bitterly.

Yep, my guess was right. "Huh, I guess that explains the looks they were giving you," I remark but to my surprise Jorrun just barks out a laugh.

"Oh, no. Before you came no one really gave a shit about who I was. Fist was never one of the most likable people around, and unfortunately that passed on to his people. For the looks I'm getting now, I have to thank Shepard," here he sends her a glance. "I told them I'm bringing a Spectre as backup, they thought I was bullshitting them. Turns out it's true and now they're shitting their pants knowing that I have a Spectre at my back and call... and I'm not going to deny a thing, no offense," he quickly added.

"None taken," Shepard replies with a nonchalant shrug and a small smirk. "Say whatever you want, and I won't confirm anything."

"Giving them the benefit of the doubt, eh?" Jorrun remarks with a small turian smirk. "Heh, I like that. Either way, most of them won't do a thing about it. Most of them will shit their pants just at the idea of fighting a Spectre," at this point we stop in front of a door, a door that belongs to one of the side-rooms. I was never in one of them, pretty much because I was no allowed inside, since according to Jorrun, there was some classified stuff in there. "Okay, no offense to any of you, but don't say a word until you're spoken to. Shepard can do whatever she wants, but you two," he points a finger at me and then at Garrus, "keep your mouths shut."

Garrus looks like he's about to disagree but I give him a pointed look and thankfully he gets it. Jorrun never actually told me or anyone to keep quiet, or anything like that. He simply didn't care about our behavior so if now he suddenly started caring about it, he sure as hell had a good reason.

He opens the door and leads us inside. It's a small room and it's pretty obvious that it wasn't used often. There were a couple of boxes in the corner, a small bookshelf with a couple of honest to god books there, real, paper books. On the other side of the room was a small table with a computer terminal but the large, round, high-tech looking table in the middle of the room looked to be a new addition. Still, my attention was instantly brought to the six men who were standing there, looking more annoyed than anything else.

It was an odd bunch, in my opinion at least. A trio of humans, a turian and a krogan. Most of them sent us an interested glance but mostly they focused on Shepard and Jorrun. "Finally, I was tired of waiting," the krogan remarks. He was a big guy, not as big as Wrex but big nontheless, with a dark brown crest.

"Yeah, I had to meet our latest addition to the team," Jorrun replies, sending a glance at Shepard.

"Commander Shepard, first human Spectre," one of the humans, the tall and slim one with sandy colored hair says with a raised eyebrow. "When Jorrun said that he got us a Spectre, I assumed he was just boasting and lying, but I'm pleasantly surprised," he says. He has a bit of a nasal tone and the way he speaks just screams 'I'm higher than thou' to me.

Shepard just gives him a nod and Jorrun decides to take the lead from here. "Alright, quick introductions. This is Albert Faust," he points at the man who just spoke. "the current head of the Tayseri ward syndicate," he then moved to the second human in the group, a bald Asian guy with an intricate and colorful tattoo all over his head, disappearing down beneath his clothes. "this is Honda, one of the top lieutenants of the Bachjret Yazuka..." he got a glare from the man. "Yakuza," Jorrun quickly corrected himself, looking immensely embarrassed, and pointed at the last human. "this is Carlo Capriotti and his krogan bodyguard, Galern, representing Don Capriotti of the Kithoi ward mafia, who decided against gracing us with his presence."

"Ey, gramps is one-hundred and ten, not exactly the proper age to run around shooting people," the man, Carlo, remarks indignantly. He looked like the Average Joe in my opinion. Black hair, pretty average face, though the only thing that made him stand apart was his fancy suit, the kind I've seen some people wear on the presidium.

"Okay, moving on," Jorrun continued, ignoring Carlo's remark. "Darin Norvan, one of the top lieutenants of the Kithoi syndicate," he points at the turian, who I notice lacks the facial tattoos I've seen on most turians. Then Jorrun turns to the people he just introduced to us and started introducing us. "This is Commander Shepard, as you already know, Garrus Vakarian and one of my lieutenants, Alex."

I give them a respectful – in my opinion – nod, trying to hide my excitement. I'm standing in front the large majority of the Citadel's crime-lords, without getting shot at and I've been just introduced as one of Jorrun's lieutenants, as in, one of the newest crime-lord's lieutenant. I'm not sure if I should actually be proud of the fact, being almost-officially announced as part of a criminal organization, but I can't deny that it sounds more than a bit awesome. Lieutenant has an awfully nice ring to it.

"Vakarian?" the turian asks suddenly. "He's C-Sec," he concludes and suddely everyone's attention is on poor Garrus, who looks like he would rather be anywhere else other than this place.

"He's with me," Shepard states with finality before anyone else could do anything about it. "He's part of _my_ crew, so if you don't like it, we can leave," she says and looks at them through narrowed eyes. The stare back at her for several seconds before Faust gives her an acknowledging nod. As if it was a signal, everyone else quickly follows. Garrus visibly relaxes.

"Alright, we didn't come here chat. Show us what you've got," Carlo says, leaning on the round table. In response Jorrun reaches into his omni-tool and presses a few buttons. A second later, the table lights up and a holographic display of the Citadel pops up, hovering about thirty centimeters above the surface of the table. I have to say that this looks really cool in my opinion. It even slowly rotates like the real version.

"Alright, let's begin," Jorrun agrees. The display zooms in on a particular ward, the Tayseri ward if I'm not wrong, and fixated itself on a particular building on the edge of the arm. I'm not really sure, but it looks like a warehouse to me. A second later Jorrun confirms my idea. "This warehouse now belongs to the Blue Suns and it happens to be our main target. It's pretty much the Blue Suns' main base on the Citadel. The majority of their forces are in there, including all their weapons and vehicles. From what we got from scouts, they have about fifty to sixty guys in there. Going in unnoticed is going to be hard, especially when they start shooting. The place has sentries, cameras and what not. Basically, the security is tighter than a matriarch's..." he trailed off from there with an awkward cough, though I notice that some of crime-lord have a small smirk on their faces.

"Alright, if it's 'impenetrable' as you say, how do we take them out," Carlo asks, placing his hands on the table and leaning in.

A cough interrupts him and we all look at Faust. "They are expecting a weapon shipment today, in a few hours actually," he explained.

"And how does that help us?" the turian, Norvan, asks with a hint of annoyance. I don't think I'll be wrong if I'm going to assume there's no love between these two.

"The driver in charge of the shipment works for me," Faust says smugly with a large smile. "They're going to get their shipment, only instead of weapons, they're going to receive a shipment of our armed men," he states, pointing out the small hangar in the large warehouse. "We essentially bypass all their defenses and start the battle right in their midst."

The krogan chuckles at the plan. "Sounds good to me. They won't know what hit 'em," he says with a grin.

"Good," Jorrun says with a nod. "the majority of our force will attack their base, while..." he moves the display to a different location, so distance from the warehouse but still on the same ward. It's a relatively small building, by Citadel standards at least, about five stories high and a short distance from the edge of the ward. Jorrun continues once he highlighted the building. "... a small group will attack this building. For some reason, the Blue Suns use it as their command center, don't ask me why, but we know for sure that most of their officers are in there, including their Centurion."

"Hm, so we hit them at two locations and take out their main force and their leaders," Honda says thoughtfully before he nods. "sounds like a viable plan. What about C-Sec? Will they interfere?" he asks, sending a glance at Garrus.

Shepard speaks in his stead. "C-Sec don't know a thing about this. And if they do come, I'll just say that it's Spectre business. They can't do a thing about it," she says, ignoring Garrus scandalized look. "but if I'm not there, do try to avoid killing them," she added with a pointed look at the crime-lords. I think no one needs to be a genius to understand that this wasn't a request.

Jorrun clears his throat again and captures everyone's attention. "Alright, now that everyone knows the plan, we just need to distribute our forces. I'll be part of the warehouse assault and I think that I'll need Shepard there, since we'll encounter more difficulties there. Their command center has about ten men at best, so a small team should be enough there."

The krogan chuckles again. "You'd be out there, fighting with your own men?" he asks with evident amusement and gets a nod from Jorrun. "I'm starting to like you. At least more than I liked Fist. A damn coward, that's what he was. He won't be missed," the krogan says with a respectful nod. A bit odd, I have to say. Usually krogan hate turians and salarians but I guess that like humans, not everyone is exactly the same.

"Uh, thank you," Jorrun replies awkwardly, apparently not used to compliments for a krogan. "Well, since everyone knows the plan, we should explain it to our guys and... start the plan," he says, fighting to find proper words.

"That's reasonable," Faust agrees. "The Blue Suns expect the shipment sometime today, so we better not waste any time," and with that, he left the small room, probably to explain the whole thing to his forces. The others ones quickly follow him outside, leaving us in the room.

Jorrun stares at the door for a few seconds before he allows himself to sigh in relief. "That went better than I expected," he mutters.

"No kidding," Garrus says at my side. "I've been in the same room with several Citadel crime-lords and I haven't tried to arrest them and they didn't shoot me. It's amazing, as far as I'm concerned. The not shooting part, I mean."

"Well, I didn't expect them to acknowledge my crime-lord status just like that. Either bringing a Spectre helped, or I'm just that awesome," Jorrun concludes with a chuckle and looks at Shepard. "Thanks for coming by the way," he says.

"Thank him," she replies, pointing at me with her thumb. "Without him I wouldn't be here."

"Oh, in that case," he looks at me and gives me a light punch on the shoulder. "thanks mate," he says with a turian grin. "Let's go inform our guys about the plan," he says and leads us out of the room.

I catch up to walk beside him. "So how's Lucy doing?"

He shrugs. "I sent her back to Earth once this shit started," he replies. "Not safe for her."

"Really," I say, not really sure of what else I could say to that. "So did the meeting with her parents go? Since you're married now, I take it they approved."

He chuckles at that. "Her parents are quite... open minded I guess. After her father promised that I'll have a close encounter with his shotgun should I ever hurt her, we got along fine. Surprisingly, they accepted me as if I was a human. They're weird like that," he finishes with a shrug, though I can see the small smile he has on his face.

"Uh, you're married to a human?" Garrus asks with a hint of confusion.

Jorrun turns to him, surprisingly with a burning glare. "Yeah. I'm a human lover. You got a problem with it?" he demands more than asks.

Garrus raises a hand in a defensive gesture. "No. Not at all."

"Good. I already had to kill my own brother because he disagreed with my taste in women," he states with a shrug. "Just ask Alex, he can tell you everything about it."

* * *

><p>"There's still one thing I don't get," Johnson asks as he inspects his weapon, having finished inspecting his armor. "How come you just dropped everything and joined the Commander?"<p>

We're sitting on some crates at the back of the large truck. Tilben didn't join us for this mission, since as he said himself, his skills are unfit for fighting indoors. He's a sniper, so I'm not surprised he'd prefer being outside, instead of a hangar filled with mercs and I think he'd be more useful at the other objective anyway. Everyone already boarded the large truck and we're already on our way to their base. Jorrun went to the front of the truck, where the rest of the leaders are, and I stayed with Johnson, Shepard and Garrus in the back. I don't mind it, since it gives me a chance to catch up with Johnson.

Still, this question immediately started alarms in my head. I can barely remember what I said to Shepard and now I need to say something like that again. Okay... it's time to go with plan B. Bullshit at will. "Well, I didn't really want to work for Fist for the rest of my life. It's probably stupid, but I always wanted to do something important, something that actually mattered. And then, out of nowhere I get the opportunity to join Shepard and help her stop a rogue Spectre," I say with a shrug. Half-lies and half-truth. I didn't really lie, since I did want to do something big and awesome when I was younger, much like any other kid. "I'm doing something important and helping the Commander to save lots of people. Not to mention it's more exciting that running deliveries. I don't even mind the fact that I'm not paid to do it."

As soon as the last words left my mouth, I receive a weird look from Johnson. "Actually," Shepard pipes in with a frown. "you are getting paid."

I look at her with confusion. "I am?"

"Yes, you are," she replies with a raised eyebrow, visibly surprised that I don't know this. "I pulled some strings and listed you as a private contractor," she explains. "basically you're a mercenary working for the Systems Alliance."

She listen me as a merc? I'm actually getting paid for doing this? Whoa, talk about surprises. I'm willing to do this for free, but I'm definitely not going to refuse payment. Do Garrus and Wrex get paid too? What about Tali and Liara? This is definitely surprising.

Johnson hums in thought at that, scratching his chin. "Private contractor eh? What's the rate nowadays? Last time I checked it was a 250 credits a day."

"No, they raised it a several years ago. It's 310 credits now and 380 for Alliance approved contractors, with a nice little bonus of 4000 for combat missions," she supplies with a small grin, looking at me from the corner of her eye. "So since I approved you, you get

I feel my eyes widening – probably comically – as I quickly do the math. I honestly suck in math and I can't get an exact number, but I already know that it's not a small number. "That's a lot," I admit, slightly in shock.

"You should feel lucky," Johnson says with a chuckle. "The Alliance rarely hires mercs nowadays, and they hire only the ones they approve."

"What about everyone else?" I ask, looking at Garrus.

"I'm still in C-Sec," he replies with a shrug. Well, it makes sense. Since he still belongs to C-Sec, he can't be hired as a merc.

"I offered Wrex the same, but he refused," Shepard shrugs. "he said something about my battles being enough of a payment, or something like that," huh, that sounds like Wrex. "Tali gets the standard hired engineer wage, since she mostly works in engineering and Liara is a full volunteer," she lists off her fingers.

"Wow, this makes me feel like I was hired to do this job, instead of volunteering," I say with a frown. Damn, what a surprising day it is. Not only have I been officially become a member of a criminal organization, now I'm also an official mercenary. That's just great.

"It felt wrong taking advantage of your skills like that," Shepard replies with a shrug.

I try to resist snorting at the words, but utterly fail. "Skills? The only skills I had when I joined was my mediocre pistol skills. I didn't even have any armor other than my shitty shield module," I say with a short laugh.

"Maybe so, but it's not so true now, is it?" she counters with a victorious smirk. "You have extensive weapon training in more than one weapon, CQC training, a suit of armor, promising tech-skills with an above-average omni-tool and you're not half-bad in a firefight," she lists off my apparent 'talents'. "If you keep up this rate of improvement, give a year or two and you'll start kicking ass and taking names."

I'm am simply stunned. I'm not really the greatest member of the team. Shepard is an amazing soldier all around and is a Spectre for a damn good reason. Kaidan and Ashley are great soldiers with years of training and experience. Wrex has several human lifetimes of experience. Garrus has his – so far unseen – detective skills and uncanny accuracy with any firearm. Tali is a genius when it comes to tech and ship engines and is definitely not a slouch when it comes to combat. Liara, while not being a soldier or not having any notable training, has her amazing control of biotics, practically unmatched by either Shepard or Wrex.

Me? I'm just the random guy who volunteered for the mission, with no training and lack of knowledge in any available combat field. To say it simply, I was nearly useless. So to have Shepard suddenly acknowledge my skill as something more than 'okay' pretty much stuns me. I'm just... shocked. Shepard is most likely the best out of all of us, and I would've never expected to actually be considered as more than average by her. And her last words... well, she has officially made my day!

Johnson lets out an impressed whistle. "Damn kid, now that's a compliment. Now I'm _really_ looking forward to get this started, just to see what the hell she's talking about!" he says with a loud laugh. "You should've seen him in our first firefight. This salarian took the money and the goods and decided to run. We sent him after the salarian but at the time, we were shot at! So he just ran out of cover like a headless chicken after the salarian and for a moment, I swear he screamed like a girl," he finishes with another roaring laugh.

I freeze and stare at Johnson with horror, and my excitement utterly vanishes. I hear a snicker form Garrus and send him a dirty look, but he just looks away, not even bothering to hide his grin. Shepard looks awfully amused too, visibly fighting the urge to smile. Oh, the motherfucker! I send Johnson the biggest glare I could manage and try to convey all my hate through it. Apparently, my glares suck since he just shrugs bemusedly. In that case, I guess I should have some payback. "Well, that's still better than having a cockblocking salarian following me all over the place," I remark offhandedly and this time I'm the one getting the glare, not that I mind. I just grin back.

Johnson is about to say something but we're interrupted by a loud yell from the front. "Alright, get your asses up and prepare yourselves!" someone yelled. I'm not sure, having only heard him speak once or twice, but I think its Carlo. "ETA to Blue Suns base is three minutes!"

As soon as the words are said, everyone bursts into action. It's all extremely frantic and confusing. People suddenly remember that they wanted to check their guns, make sure their shield modules or armors are in working condition. They all move around for whatever reason they have, some shout out to their friends, asking some random things. I pick out Honda from the large crowd, probably because he was the only one not moving around like a headless chicken. In fact… the guy looks like he's asleep. Or meditating, I'm not really sure. He just sits there, legs folded underneath him, eyes closed and completely ignoring everything else. I take a closer look and see that he wears a form-fitting black suit and as a single pistol holstered on his hip and… I blink and stare at the thing that's sticking out over his shoulder: A sword hilt.

A freaking sword hilt. A sword that strongly reminds me of a katana.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. We have a _ninja_ in our team.

Okay, I might be exaggerating right now but it's easy to assume! He's Asian, wears black, has a sword and works for the Yakuza. If I'm going to see him start doing crazy backflips all over the place and stabbing people without them even noticing it, he's definitely a ninja. No other way to know.

Besides, even if I do ask, he's not going to confirm that he's a ninja. Ninja simply don't do that.

Why am I even thinking about this? Wow, now I feel all silly and stuff. I have about two minutes to get ready before shit hits the fan. Alright, let's do a speedy equipment check. Pistol here, rifle here, shotgun here… everything seems to be fine. I grab the helmet I've been carrying with me so far and finally put it on. The HUD pops on and I catch Johnson looking at me thoughtfully. "Nice helmet," he remarks.

Alright, I guess this thing is starting, since everyone starts moving to the doors. Shepard and Garrus both stand up and start moving there as well. A lot of people shoot Shepard a glance here and there and I catch a glance or two directed at me. Oh yeah, the helmet's definitely working.

Okay, I should get my head back into business. We're about to shoot a people and a shitload of people are about to get shot. I really hope that Jorrun was wrong about their numbers. Fifty to sixty Blue Suns in here, while we have around thirty people from random criminal organizations. Yeah, there is us, but considering I'm just a 'random thug', the only assets we have are Shepard and Garrus... and maybe Honda, but only because I suspect he's a ninja.

The large truck slowed down and everyone stopped talking or even whispering. Everything was quiet as a grave. Slowly everyone crept over to the doors, not daring to say a word and risk the plan failing. Within several seconds the truck jerks to a stop and the silence was starting to get unbearable. I hear someone whisper "Get ready!" from the crowd and some whisper and affirmative to that. Shit, this is awfully nerve wrecking. I can't hear a thing from the outside so I have no idea if they're coming to check out the truck. Not that it matters to me, since I'm not in the front of our group and I can't shoot anything without friendly fire. It's their job to secure us the landing zone and from there, the rest of us can go into the fray. Damn, I hope there's no machinegun waiting for us once the door opens, because that's what I'd do if I had a base.

Without a warning, the door slides open and through the crowd I manage to see five Blue Sun mercs staring at us with their mouths hanging open. The lead one, the one who opened the door, blinked at us in confusion before realization dawned on him. "Oh," he sighs out right before our guys opened fire.

The surprised mercs were torn to pieces by the combined fire of assault rifles, shotguns, pistols and whatever else we have. The mercs were dead before they even hit the floor. A few seconds later the front row of our group jumps down from the truck and the rest of us soon follow. "Move, move! Kill the fuckers!" I hear someone yell as I jump down, quickly followed by a few loud retorts of an assault rifle. I look around for Jorrun and spot him jumping out of the trucks... cockpit, I guess, and start walking over to us. Shepard, Garrus and Johnson hop down beside me and I move aside to let Jorrun lead the way. Shepard doesn't look like she minds, really. Probably because it's Jorrun's operation, or something.

The warehouse is not the biggest one I've seen so far. Slightly bigger than the one Jorrun uses but not by much. There were crates all over the place and much worse, mercs all over the place. I have to be glad that they wear their noticable blue armor, since I have no trouble distinguishing them from friendlies, so friendly fire is not one of my concerns.

The whole place is in utter chaos. Shots are being fired, people are running all over the place and more importantly, people die all over the place. One of the guys who was running in front of us suddenly falls down from a stray shot that got him in the neck, which turns our attention to a small group of mercs who by now managed to regroup behind some crates. and shake off the surprise of our attack. I'm going to assume that these are out first targets.

"Shockwave!" Shepard barks out and immediately everyone who was in front of her moves out of the way as she flares her biotics and flings a biotic shockwave at the group. Most of the mercs scramble out of the way but a couple of unlucky ones were too slow and get thrown out of their cover and soon after, crash into a large metal container with enough force to put a deep dent on the thing. They didn't get up after that.

The rest of the mercs open fire like maniacs at us, not really aiming but the fire is spread out enough that _someone_ is going to get shot eventually. Sadly, that someone is me, as evident by the sudden decrease of my shields when several shots hit me. Without thinking about it, I jump over to the closest crate and land with a clumsy half-roll thing, managing to somehow hit my head on the crate. At least I'm wearing a helmet, otherwise I'd probably have a nice, painful bump on the head.

A second after I took my cover, Garrus dives behind my crate and I move over to give him some working space. Come on shields, recharge already! One second... two seconds... and... that's it! Finally. I carefully peek out of my cover to see how many mercs are left. Three mercs behind a particularly large crate. Okay, I can work with it. I load up an Overload and wait for the right moment. When one of the mercs comes out of his cover to shoot at us, I stand up and shoot the Overload at him. With a satisfying shower of bright sparks, the merc stumbles back, probably in surprise, which gives me ample time to take aim and fire. With his shields down, the short burst catches him in the chest and he drops down like a rock.

I quickly switch my aim to the other two, who just got out of cover to shoot me, but thankfully, everyone in my group decide to do it as well. Our combined fire pelts them before they could even react and soon after their shields collapse, leaving them utterly defenseless.

"Let's go!" Jorrun barks and runs out of cover. We quickly follow him as he leads us through the confusing maze of crates. We occasionally run into the lone merc, which we quickly dispose of, or small groups of our guys. Most often, we run into dead bodies, most of which are thankfully belonging to the Blue Suns.

By this time I'm starting to wonder where Jorrun is going. I hope he's not just randomly running around in search of mercs, since I personally think we already have enough people doing just that. Thankfully, I was proven wrong when Jorrun takes a sharp turn and leads us out of the crate-maze and into a corridor, which leads to places unknown as far as I'm concerned. I gotta wonder why everyone chooses freaking warehouses as their bases and why everyone just allows them to do it. I don't get it, C-Sec has an irrational fear of warehouses or something? Meh, doesn't matter at the moment.

We run into the corridor just in time to intercept another pair of mercs who were running to our door. Since we already had our weapons raised, and they didn't, I'm not really surprised at how quickly they went down. I barely managed to squeeze a shot out, and I didn't even land it.

Okay, I have to wonder where the hell we're going, and so I'm going to ask, which I do as soon we clear the pair of dead mercs. "Where are we going?"

Jorrun gives me a quick glance before replying. "They have a leader in this base, obviously. We need to take him out before he coordinates a proper defense," he explains.

"Yeah, so far it's been fucking easy. We got the completely by surprise," Johnsons adds.

"Exactly. We need to work quickly and not give them any time to recover. Now enough with the questions and lets go," Jorrun finishes and increases our speed.

We reach the end of the corridor and when we open the door we come face to face with another merc. Only this time, he's not even looking at us. In fact, he's preoccupied with someone else, judging by his frantic and blind shooting style. I look at what he's shooting and my eyes land on a familiar Asian running towards the merc, completely ignoring the shots being fired at him. Holy crap, what is Honda doing? He's running at the merc, pistol held in his left hand and his sword, already blood-stained, held in his right hand in a backhand grip.

Once Honda gers close enough for the merc to hit him easily, Honda does a sudden handless cartwheel to the right, shoots twice quickly, rolls to the left just when the merc corrects his aim and then with another two shots collapses the merc's shields and roll forward at the merc when the merc corrects his aim again, comes out of the roll with a wild spin, stopping with his back pressed to the merc... and his sword sticking into the man's gut. He stands like this for a few more seconds until he pulls his sword out of the merc with a flurry and with another quick spin, lops the merc's head off. There are two dull thuds, the sickening sound of blood pouring out of the large wound, the quiet sound of the head rolling away and then silence. He whips his sword with a short movement, flicking the blood off of it, and turns to us, giving us a quick nod before he runs away to continue his job.

By Kelemvor's brass balls. By the Red Knight's mighty tits. This was... fucking _amazing_. Honda is definitely a fucking ninja. I think my jaw is still somewhere on the floor and considering none of us moved from our spots since the whole spectacle began, I think I'm not the only one who is amazed.

"Holy shit," Jorrun mutters, pretty accurately voicing my thoughts.

"Damn, I blinked and missed half of the thing!" Johnson whistles in amazement. "One moment he's there, and the next he's stabbing the fuck out of him!"

Damn, if Honda is just a lieutenant... this means the Citadel has a whole freaking organization of ninja's! Note to self: Never, _never ever_ mess with the Citadel Yakuza. They have fucking _ninjas_ at the disposal. I look at Shepard, who's staring at the headless corpse with a noticeable amount of surprise. "Can you do anything like this?" I ask. I just gotta know.

Shepard blinks and looks at me. She scratches the back of her head as she thinks of an answer. "I can do the cartwheel thing. Give me a sword and I'll see if I can do the rest," she says, still looking slightly dazed.

Jorrun clears his throat loudly before I can say anything else. "Let's, uh, continue. We still have a job to do," he says with another glance at the headless merc.

Yeah... let's hope the Blue Suns don't have freaking _ninja _in their ranks. Fuck, this is bloody ridiculous! Ninja? Really?

We move on, going to the farthest end of this part of the warehouse. It's slightly smaller than the last part, and the number of crates definitely decreased and so far is suspiciously quiet, save for the distant and muffled sounds of battle going around us. It takes us a little while, but we reach the the end of the room without any confrontations and we slow down once we see what is ahead of us.

An open area, flaked by large crates and all the way ahead, something which looking like the crane controls for this place. We look around for any Blue Suns, but this place is pretty much empty. Jorrun leads us forward into the open and when we reach the center of the open area we spot movement up ahead. A merc steps out of the booth where the crane controls were located and looks at Shepard. "Shit. They weren't lying. We really do have a Spectre after us," he growls angrily and then puts a finger on his ear. "Alright, kill 'em all!" he orders.

Alright, this seems like a very good time to run like hell. I run to the left after Garrus and Johnson while Shepard and Jorrun run to the right. Halfway to cover I hear Jorrun loudly yell "Snipers!" Gee, thanks dude. Doesn't really help me if I'm still getting shot. Why the hell did we even go through the open middle? It was such an obvious trap! Damn, I feel like an idiot for not pointing that out.

I'm almost at the cover when suddenly I hear a loud zipping sound and a see a streak of something fly right in front of my face. Damn! Fuck, fuck fuck! I feel a dull impact on my side and my HUD blares in warning, telling me my shields are below ten percent. Shit! I increase my running speed because apparently, I'm targeted by every single fucking sniper in the building, judging by the ridiculous amount of shots being fire at me. I'm almost there now and when I had just a few more running steps left I dive to the cover. I feel a sudden and a slightly painful sensation on my right shoulder, as if someone shoved me there right before I land and my shield meter drops to zero. I half roll half crawl into the cover and much to my relief I'm not being shot anymore. I stand up and lean against the crate, trying to get my breath back under control and look at my shoulder to see what happened there. Hot damn! There's a slightly smoking scratch engraved on the shoulder pad. I'm assuming that's where the sniper round clipped me. Fuck. A few more centimeters to the left and I would've lost my throat.

I'm beginning to hate snipers.

Speaking of snipers, Garrus takes out his sniper rifle and slowly and carefully peeks out. "Give me a moment..." he mutters as he continues looking. I don't really mind. I'll just stare at my shield meter until it recharges. Things are much, much better when the shields are full. "Alright, I found him. On the catwalks near the ceiling. Forty-five degrees to my left. Give me some suppressive fire," Garrus calmly says, as if he's not bothered by the situation at all.

Okay, my shields are recharged and I guess I don't have any more time for a breather. Forty-five degrees? Uh... I'm not really sure where that is but I can guess... or follow Johnson's lead. I suck at math, simple as that.

Johnson and I step out of cover and blindly fire at the needed direction. As soon as we started shooting, Garrus drops down to a knee and takes aim. We fire for a few more seconds – I'm beginning to worry that my rifle's going to overheat any time now – until Garrus finally shoots and we all go back into cover.

"Target Shepard you morons! Target her!" I hear the merc, I'm assuming he's their leader, scream at his men.

I look at where Shepard is. Her biotics are flaring wildly as she shoots something at the catwalks above us, probably a Pull or a Warp. Jorrun helps her out with some suppressive fire, just like we help Garrus.

"Alright, one more time!" Garrus barks out, "Catwalks,sixty degrees to my left," he says and let's us do our thing. Garrus comes out of cover again, crouching on one knee and this time immediately lets out a single shot before we move back in.

We repeat this process two more times until apparently, they run out of snipers, judging my the enraged screams I can hear from the merc leader. Shit, he really has some anger management issues. "Goddammit! Screw this! Send in the mech!" he shouts to his radio.

Mech? I look up at the crane to see it bringing in something I definitely didn't expect to see. It landed on the floor with a loud thud and unfolded itself, glaring at us with two vertical glowing red eyes.

What the hell? A YMIR mech? How the fuck did it get here? They only showed up during Mass Effect 2! How the fuck did they get a mech! At that moment a trio of our allies run into the scene and spot the large mech. The mech looks back at the and raises it's arms. Oh shit... they should take some cover. Right now.

Sadly, they don't have enough time. They manage to turn around to run but by that time the mech already opened fire from it's arm-mounted miniguns. The poor fellas barely manage to make two steps before they are cut down by the hail of bullets. After several more seconds of needless fire, since they all died in the first barrage, the mech turns to look at us and raises its left arm. "Oh, shit," Johnson yells and pushes me down to the ground before he does the same. A second later the crate we were hiding behind exploded to pieces.

I blink dazedly as I try to get rid of the sudden ringing sound in my ears as I look around myself. Johnson brushes some crate parts off of himself while Garrus, who got out of the explosion unharmed by moving away in time, was already shooting at the thing with his assault rifle. Shepard and Jorrun are blasting the thing with everything they have too. I guess I should join them!

I'm about to get up when I notice some weight on my lap. I look at the object and I'm immensely surprised to see an assault rifle there. I look around and I see that it's not the only weapon here. There was weapons lying everywhere around our now-blown up crate. I'm trying to figure out where they came from and when I realize I feel like I should palm my face. _Of course_ there will be stuff lying around here. Duh. Who would leave empty crates here?

Not to mention that these are crates filled with weapons. I quickly get up, letting the rifle clatter to the floor, and look into the remains of the crate while the mech was distracted by Shepard, who was flinging biotic warps at it... or whatever they were. I'm not familiar enough with biotics to know what she does with them.

Okay... let see... that's a lot of weapons. They're not in top condition, probably from the explosion but they're in working condition, and that's what's important. Assault rifles, pistols, several sniper rifles... damn, is there nothing useful here? Oh... what is this? I pull out the odd weapon. It has some tube-like parts and... oh my god.

It's a rocket launcher.

I quickly pull it out, and a good thing that is because at that moment the mech decides that our side was more threatening. I hear the digital voice announce that it acquired a target and when I look I see the mech looking straight at us. Oh, shit, nothing to do here!

I lift the rocket launcher over my shoulder and run like hell just as the chaingun starts firing. I move back behind the other crates and crouch there to figure out what the hell I'm doing with this heavy piece of explosion-maker. I have no idea how to use this thing. I guess I can just... lift it over my shoulder and pull the trigger. That always works in movies. Sadly, I know for a fact that movies lie, especially Hollywood movies from the 80-90's.

"How the fuck do I use this shit?" I yell over the roar of the chaingun.

Johnson looks at me, opens his mouth but pauses when he sees the rocket launcher. "Put it on your shoulder, aim it and pull the damn trigger!" he explains and turns back to the mech.

Okay, that's pretty straight forward. I like it so far. I heft it on my shoulder with a small grunt – this thing is heavier than it looks – and move over to a relatively safe spot to shoot from. Alright, this should be easy, especially now that the snipers are gone. I run behind a large mount of crates to circle around the mech and when I finally clear them, the mech happens to be facing Shepard... with it's back to me. This is just perfect! I fix my grip on the weapon and brace myself for a hellish recoil. I take aim and pull the trigger.

The recoil is surprisingly... not there. It's still there, but not as much as I expected it to be. Much less recoil than my shotgun, oddly enough. The missile cuts through the air and impacts the middle of the mech's back. The explosion is simply glorious. The loud boom drowns all other sound for a moment and the mech's back erupts in a ball of fire, sending the mech stumbling forward.

I don't know, but there's something very, very appealing about the fact that I caused this large explosion. It's just so big... and bright! Not to mention loud! Freaking awesome I say, freaking awesome.

Unfortunately, shooting a rocket into the thing's back pretty much classified me as the greater threat, since I was now slowly turning around to face me, smoke rising off it's back and several sparks shooting out of the holes in it's armor.

Oh shit. How the hell do I reload? Do I even have more ammo? Does this thing even _use_ ammo? Crap, no time to think about it. I run back behind cover just as chaingun rounds start flying all around me. I crouch down behind one of the crates around and try to figure out this bloody weapon but I don't really have time for this. The mech might shoot a missile at me and blast me to pieces along with my crate. I peek out and see the mech still facing me, prepping its left arm in my direction. Goddammit!

Luckily, there's the fact that it now had it's back turned to Shepard, who easily capitalized on it's flaw. Right as the mech was about to shoot another rocket at me, it was suddenly wrapped in a biotic field and slowly floated off the ground. When it was about ten meters off the ground it was launched through the air right at the crane controls booth. With a loud cacophony of breaking metal, crashing things and all around destruction it crashes through the window and a few seconds later explodes, destroying whatever was left after the thing crashed everything.

Holy crap. Now _that_ was awesome. I look over at Shepard and see her leaning against a crate, panting and looking slightly exhausted. Whoa, I guess lifting stuff like this is more tiring than I thought.

Now that our battle is over, I finally note that it's a lot quieter now. The sounds of combat all around us faded to some random shots fired once in a while but other than that, it's pretty silent. I let the rocket launcher fall to the floor with a clatter, since I won't be needed it anymore. Not that I know how to use the thing anyway. "Well," Shepard mutters. "that was fun," she finishes with a sigh.

"You can say that again," I say as I walk over to her and lean on the crate beside her. Man, I was a lot more tired than I first thought. Not that the adrenaline is wearing off I'm feeling freaking exhausted. I spot Johnson rummaging through one of the weapon crates, apparently picking a new toy for himself. Jorrun is talking through the radio with someone, looking quite preoccupied with his conversation. "Bloody mercs," I add as I let out a long, tired sigh.

"Should we be resting now? There might be some mercs left," Garrus asks, looking around us suspiciously.

"If we weren't shot at by now, it means we're alone," Shepard says with a short look around. "for now, at least."

"Alright," Jorrun says as he walks over to us, now finished with his conversation. "I can easily say that this mission is successful. We took out their Centurions and anyone else that might take command," he announces with a grin.

"Good to know," I say with a tired smile. "what now?"

"Now we run the fuck away," Jorrun replies. "C-Sec are on their way and I really don't want to be here when they get here."

Shepard sighs again and pushes herself off. "Fine. Let's get out of here."

I push myself off of the crate with a grunt and follow her. "Bloody mercs," I sigh out again. Damn them for making me run so much. And here I thought that I'll have a day off, filled with laziness and resting. Instead, I get this. Damn Blue Suns...

* * *

><p>"Well, here we are," Jorrun says somberly as he climbs out of the car.<p>

I do the same, getting out of the car to the front of C-Sec academy. After we left the warehouse we quickly got a skycare and made a beeline to the docks.

"It was nice meeting you," Shepard says with a small smile, offering him her hand.

Jorrun looks at it for a second before he takes it and gives it a firm shake, letting out a short chuckle. "Likewise. Didn't expect to meet a Spectre today. It turned out better than I expected it to."

Garrus gives Jorrun a pointed look, though I did notice the tiniest smirks on his face. "I'll be seeing you later," he says gruffly.

At this Jorrun barks out a laugh. "In that case, I'll be expecting you," he replies with the tiniest of a grins. Would you look at that. They're actually getting a long! Heh, this turned out way better than I thought it would.

Shepard and Garrus wordlessly leave, walking into the C-Sec academy and leaving us by ourselves. There's a really awkward moment of silence between us until Jorrun finally decides to break it. "You sure you know what you're doing? Saren deserves the reputation he has."

Do I know what I'm doing? Half of the time... not really. But the rest? Sure. This time I'm pretty sure that I know what I'm doing. Not to mention that I already know how events will unfold, so it's a big, juicy bonus for me. "Of course I do. Don't you trust me?"

He huffs humorlessly. "Hah, don't make me lie to you."

I chuckle at that, shaking my head at his antics. "Really. I do know what I'm doing. Don't worry about me. You should take care of yourself first. You got random mercs on the station of random thugs trying to take over, not to mention that you're suddenly the new Fist."

"Ugh, don't remind me. I preferred it when I was just a normal lieutenant. Less time spent on work, more time for myself. Now though... I have to handle the shit your friend there left us in."

"Don't hold it against her. She was just doing her job," I defend Shepard.

"I'm not... though that doesn't mean that I can't be pissed off about the crap I have to fix."

"Heh, true," I pause there, not sure what else I can say. "well, I should be going. I have synthetics to kill, A rogue Spectre to catch, a galaxy to save. You know how it goes," I say with a small grin.

He chuckles at that. "Yeah, good luck with that," he says and then he looks at me with utmost seriousness. "Don't die out there."

I'm slightly surprised by how serious he is right now. He's usually more laid back, but this time, there's not a drop of it in sight. It's nice to know that he cares. Sure, we insult each other as much as we can, but it's just playful banter. It's fun, simple as that. I give him a firm nod. "I'm not planning to. You take care of yourself, you hear me?" I say and then grin. "You wouldn't want to leave a widowed Lucy with me... trust me on that."

He gives me a weak glare at that. "Bastard," he mutters. "I'll be seeing you, I guess."

"Yep. That you will. We usually come here for shore leave, so I'll be sure to tell you when we're around. That's a promise."

"Good to know. By the way, now that you mention it, what took you so long to answer your mail?" he asks, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Oh... by the nine hells. How am I supposed to answer that? I don't really have a viable excuse... damn, this sucks. I'll just have to live it down. "The omni-tool was... uh, muted so... well, I didnt hear the messages when I got them... so..." I trail off, looking away.

Jorrun sighs noisily. "Idiot," was his simple reply.

"Yeah..." I say, unable to deny that fact. "So I guess I'll be seeing you," I say with a grin, holding up my fist to him.

He looks at it for several seconds before he rolls his eyes with another sigh and bumps his own fist against mine. Yay! It took me half a year but I finally managed to get a fist bump from him! Sure, it's childish but I don't care! That's a cause for celebration, that's for sure. "Good luck saving the galaxy and all that."

"Thanks. Hopefully I won't need it," I say and with that, I walk through the gates of the academy, sending a glance back to Jorrun, who was walking back to the skycar.

Well, looks like I'm done here for now. I'm really glad that Jorrun and Johnson got along with Shepard and Garrus. It's always nice when two different groups of your friends actually get along. It's also nice to know that Joe approves of my 'unexpected' quest... at least partially. I'll make sure to send him a message the next time I'm on the Citadel. It'd be nice to have a drink or two, especially since I didn't get one today. Not to mention that I still have to somehow warn them about the battle against Sovereign. It would definitely suck to be crushed by random Reaper debris.

I make my further into the academy and spot Shepard and Garrus standing by the elevator. "You done?" Shepard asks once I get close enough.

"Yep. I'm done for now."

"You sure? No more unexpected business?" Garrus pipes in.

"Definitely. I'm ready to leave," I assure him with a roll of my eyes.

"Good. Now let's go. We have a rogue Spectre to catch," Shepard announces cheerily and with that we enter the elevator.

* * *

><p><strong>Yay, another chapter done! Next chapter is going to be a special one. It's the 30th chapter! Yeah, not really anything special, but shit, it's the longest story I've ever written in my life, so I'm allowed to celebrate a little. So yeah, finally updated... so rejoice!<strong>

**Oh, about the story cover... yeah, I'm trying to vaguely hint that I'd like someone to make a story cover for me because my artistic skills are awfully lacking and disguise it with disguised hints and requests... so I'll skip ahead and just ask you if you won't mind making one for me... or something. Do it only if you're horrifically bored enough to do it. I might come up with something on paint at the meantime.**

**So yeah, I want to thank everyone who has been reading the story. It's awfully incredible to be getting around ten reviews every chapter and over a dozen favs and story alerts from various people. It makes me feel loved, it really does. It also makes me feel that my writing skills are good, so... thanks for boosting my ego every time I post a chapter! Yay. Feel free to leave a comment, or a constructive review or just tell me what you think (yes, I'm repeating myself). Also do feel free to point out any flaws you might find, I'd be glad if you did.**

**So yeah, hopefully I'll finish the next chapter soon, not really sure when though. Have final exam on the 27th and graduation on the 29th... so yeah, wish me luck. Until next time, Delvaro out!**


	30. Chapter 30

**Alright, hello folks! I am back again with another chapter! I've got some announcements to make so I'll get it over with as fast as I can. First of all, I want to apologize for the unintentional delay with the release of this chapter, but what can I say, I was celebrating and visiting some relatives.**

**Aye, I have graduated! I am officially a certified car mechanic! Woo! A pretty useful skill to have, if I might say, but now I've got other business ahead, like getting into an acceptable university. Either way, for now I'll have a lot more time to write, so that should mean faster updates! Yay for me and yay for you!**

**On another note... this chapter is special, despite being so short (when compared with the last few). It's the 30th chapter! It feels like I started this thing so long ago... bt damn, it was so worth it! 191 reviews, 49929 hits, 3 C2's, 140 favs and 167 alerts! Damn, now I feel so loved. So... I don't have anything else to say. Just... thank you for reading the story! I'm really glad you loved it so far! Thanks for the massive ego boost! My self-consciousness as a writer is really huge at the moment.**

**Okay, no more delays with my ramblings. Here's the new chapter!**

* * *

><p>Okay, where the hell are everyone? When we returned yesterday I ate something and went to bed as soon as I could to get some sleep. I was actually a bit exhausted.<p>

Now that I woke up, half the crew is missing. I went to get a quick breakfast, met Ashley there, chatted with her a bit about the last mission, she expressed some anger at the fact that we didnt take her with us and then she went back to her duties: keeping our weapons in working condition.

I haven't seen Kaidan there, I assume Liara was in her quarters I guess, Wrex and Garrus are in the cargo hold, Tali is obviously in engineering, making sure the upgrades are working properly... but as for Shepard and Kaidan? No fucking clue. Naturally, I assume that Shepard is doing something important... probably because she runs the ship. I go to the CIC to see if she's there but no such luck. Just the regular crew members.

Strangely enough, when I looked over the nifty galaxy map I noticed that we're not heading for Noveria. Strange, because I'm still a bit surprised I actually noticed that fact. I doubt I'll find our own location unless someone pointed it out for me, but here I found that we're not going to Noveria. Who knows how these things work. I asked Pressly about our destination, since he was our navigator, but he didn't know anything beyond what Shepard told him. Shepard had some business there and so we were going there. The details were unknown so far.

Cool. Now I had another reason to find Shepard. Not just because I'm bored, but also because want to know where the hell we are going to. My next stop is the cargo hold, since it's possible that Shepard will be there. It's not the first time I've seen her doing her 'rounds', going around and chatting with everyone. She might be doing this right now!

And so I head down to the place Ashley lovingly labeled as the 'Alien hold' – despite the obvious fact that she hangs out there herself, something which I simply had to point out when she mentioned the name – to see what I'll find there.

I patiently wait for the elevator to arrive – again, reminding myself to ask Tali to do something about the speed – and once the door finally opens I nearly collide with Kaidan as I try to go inside. "Whoa, there you are," I greet him and move aside to let him pass.

"Oh, do you need anything?" he asks.

"Nah, I was just wondering you were. Haven't seen you during breakfast," I reply with a shrug.

"Ah, I was just leaving some of my equipment for Ashley to check."

"I see. Do you know where Shepard is?" I ask after a moment of contemplation.

"No idea. I haven't seen her down there. I'll go and get myself something to eat. You should check the crew deck," he says with a tiny shrug and turns to leave, only to pause after a step. "oh, and be careful. Wrex was looking for you and he doesn't look happy."

I stare after Kaidan until he disappears around the stairwell. Okay... something is definitely not right with what he said. An unhappy Wrex is a an unhappy everyone else. To make it worse, Kaidan made it sound as if he was unhappy with _me_.

Yeah, I better check it out before I'll become the unhappy one.

I get into the elevator and slowly descend to the cargo hold. I gotta wonder what's Wrex's problem now. I didn't do anything to him and I'm not stupid enough to talk shit about him behind his back. Maybe it's a krogan culture thing? Getting pissed at someone for no reason? Nah, that can't be it. Wrex is pretty sensible so I guess I unknowingly did something that made him mad... or something.

The door finally slides open and I immediately see Wrex pushing himself off the wall and stomp his way over to me. Okay... he looks pissed off.

"I'm pissed off," he announces once he stops in front of me, his face just a few inches away from my nose. Man, his head is kinda big...

"Uh, I noticed," I remark as I lean my head back, just to make a some distance between us and so I could actually look him in the eyes instead of staring at his nostrils. "You mind telling me why?"

He huffed in reply. "I heard you had some fun with the Blue Suns on the Citadel. I was asking Shepard why I wasnt invited and she told me that it was _your_ mission," he says and leans forward again, closing the distance I made between us. "So same question, why wasn't I invited?"

He's pissed because... I didn't invite him to kill some mercs? Damn, this is ridiculously... childish. Like a kid that didn't get invited to a party. I would laugh, I really would, if it wasn't Wrex. "Well, uh, I guess I'm sorry?" I say with a bit of confusion. What else am I supposed to say? "We were kinda in a hurry, so we didn't have any time to grab anyone else..." I finish lamely. I'm not going to say that the thought didn't even cross my mind. That will sound lame.

"Well, next time you better find some time," the krogan grunts at me, poking me in the chest with a finger, actually pushing me back a step. "Especially if the Blue Suns are involved. We have some unfinished business," and with that he turns away and returns to his favorite spot.

This gives me pause. Wrex has a beef with the Blue Suns? This is... utterly new. I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about it. I don't know what he's going to tell me! By the nine hells, this is bloody amazing! I almost run over to Wrex. "You've got something against the Blue Suns?" I ask, unable to hold my grin in check.

Wrex gives me a curious look, probably wondering why I'm grinning like an idiot. "Why are you asking?" he grunts out.

"Well, you can say I've got a grudge too," I say and fold my arms, giving the krogan a small smug look. "I kicked their asses twice already, and I don't think I've had enough," okay, I've just been involved in the ass-kicking, but it still counts, not to mention that in my first run in with the guys it was just me and Jorrun.

Wrex lets out a noise that sounded like a mix between a grunt and a thoughtful hum. "It's nothing special," he finally says with a shrug. "I was doing a job and the Blue Suns come out of nowhere, trying to steal my bounty, for some reason thinking it's a wise idea to try and kill me while at it," he pauses there, giving me a pointed look. "_Try_ is the keyword," he adds with a short chuckle.

Yeah, Wrex is awesome like that. There's a reason why I like him so much. "No offense, but it doesn't look like a good reason for a grudge," he point out. He obviously killed the guys who attacked him, since he stands here it's quite obvious too. That's no reason to hate a whole organization.

"It's not," he agrees with a nod, surprising me slightly. "things like that happen once in a while in my line of business. But with the Blue Suns it happened to me four times already! Last time happened only four months ago. I'm about to take out my target when these punks show up, giving the target enough time to run away... I got him later of course, but it's still annoying with how frequent these idiots show up."

Ah, that explains it. Those pesky mercs. "Now that you explained it, it does sound like a good enough reason to have a grudge," I say with a short chuckle. "Are you sure they were after your target and not, you know, after you?" I ask with a small smile.

Wrex rolls his eyes again. "Nah, I checked. Several times. As far as I'm concerned, it's just lousy luck. For them. They're welcome to try again though. A lot more fun than the usual idiots I get to deal with, heh," he chuckles again.

"I'll take your word on that," I say, joining in with a small chuckle. "I don't really hate the Blue Suns, but with all the experience I had with them, I can't bring myself to like them. It's more of a... violent dislike where I'm concerned," I admit with a shrug. Kidnapping my friends wife, trying to take over the Citadel's underworld... stuff like this gets them on my wrong side, at least the kidnapping part. I don't really care about the underworld, not to mention I'm still surprised I'm so involved in it now.

Wrex lets out another rumbling chuckle. "A violent dislike is enough to start shooting in most cases."

"True. For some reason these guys have a tendency to get involved with me. I don't really want anything to do with them..." I let out a melancholic sigh. "but we both know we can't get everything we want in life."

"Speak for yourself. You're not trying hard enough," Wrex responds philosophically.

I give him a weird look. "Is this the part where you start a motivational speech telling me to never give up and stuff? Because if it is, I'll be really worried about you," I state. Wrex and motivational speeches just seems freakishly wrong to me.

Even Wrex looks weirded out by what I said just now. "What? No! Just wanted to say that with enough time, skill, and credits you can get almost anything you can want," he finishes with shrug.

"Yeah, for you maybe. I won't live a thousand years, you know? I've got... what, a century at best?" I ask myself more than Wrex. I'm not really up to date with my medical knowledge but I know for sure that the human life expectancy is about a century and a half now. Don't really know the average, but it's still awesome as far as I'm concerned. People lived up to 80 back in my time, and those were the lucky ones.

"Considering the things you involve yourself in? I'll give you somewhere between a month and a year," Wrex replies, nodding sagely.

I stare at him blankly for about thirty seconds before I just shake my head. "Your faith in me is astounding. Really, it is," I say monotonously and run a hand through my hair. He just chuckles at me. "Ugh, and you totally ruined the mood now. Screw it, I'm going to find Shepard," I say and walk away to the elevator while Wrex's chuckle escalates into a laugh.

Okay, all things considered I think that went well! I'm willing to believe that Wrex likes me more, since before he barely even bothered to open his mouth whenever I was nearby. Now though? Just a minute ago he was blasting so many words I couldn't even count them and he was even joking about something! Yeah, that's definitely some progress.

* * *

><p>I find Shepard and Garrus sitting in the makeshift lounge, chilling on the couch and playing another video game.<p>

"Come on, give me some cover!" Shepard barks out while she furiously taps the controller buttons.

"I'm already doing that!" Garrus growls back, refusing to tear his eyes off the screen.

Okay, now I'm definitely curious. Despite not playing any video games lately, other than that lovely omni-game, I gotta admit that I'm still a game at heart, and this game looks pretty nice from the glimpse I got right now.

It's on splitscreen, probably coop and it looks like they're fighting against an army of... well, an army of people. I have no idea if there's a plot or anything but it looks like they're in big trouble, judging by the amount of fire Shepard soaks. "There you are," I announce my presence. "I've been looking for you all over the place."

"Nice to know I'm so desired," Garrus pipes in.

I roll my eyes. "I meant Shepard," I supply needlessly. I walk over and collapse on the couch beside Shepard and look at their interesting game. "I've been to the CIC and noticed that we're not going to Noveria... so, where are we going?"

Huh, Shepard is really... lively about this game. If she keeps this up, she might break the poor controller. "Since you started a new fashion of suddenly having personal problems," she sends me a glance at that, "it's now Garrus' turn. We're going to make a quick stop by a particular ship and from there we head to Noveria."

Ooh, it's the Dr. Saleon mission! I was wondering when we'll get to it. About time as far as I'm concerned. "Huh... cool," I finally say, hoping that I didn't sound too lame. "So what are you doing here?"

"Going over our quantum physics equations," Garrus pipes in again and gives me a bored look.

Okay, I set myself up to this so I have only myself to blame. "He's in a fine mood this morning," I remark.

Shepard snickers at that. "Don't mind him. He's just sad that he's not as good as I am. How many times have you died by now, huh? Five? Six?" She asks with a grin.

Garrus scoffs in indignation. "You? Better than me? Please. The only reason I died was because you had -" he freezes when suddenly a stray bullet catches his character in the head and Shepard starts laughing. Even I have a hard time stopping myself from laughing my ass off and instead I let out something between a chocked snicker and a cough. His mouth hangs open for a few seconds and his mandibles twitch a couple of times. "You know what? Screw this. The controller is biased against turians," he mutters, throwing the controller over to me.

"Excuses," Shepard says interrupts him with a grin. "the controller is just fine. You're just not good enough for this game."

Garrus grunts in annoyance and stands up. "I've got better things to do," he mutters again.

"Like calibrations?" I pipe in. I can't help it, I simply have to say it.

He rolls his eyes at that. "No. Things like preparing for the next mission," and with that he leaves the room.

We stare after him for a few seconds before Shepard breaks the silence. "Sore loser."

I snicker at that. "So what's interesting about this mission?" I ask. I know about it of course, but I guess I should ask now and later avoid mentioning details that I should have no knowledge about. "What should I expect?"

"Ah, nothing serious as far as I know. Some crazy salarian organ-harvesting doctor escaped the Citadel despite Garrus nearly catching him. Now Garrus found him again and asked me to give him a lift. That's the story in a nutshell. If you want to know the details, talk to Garrus, though I'm not sure if he'll want to tell you the whole story. It's kinda personal for him from what I saw."

"Ah. Maybe I'll ask him about it later," I might as well. This sounds like a normal Dr. Saleon mission. I haven't changed anything and from what I know, nothing strange will happen. No necromorphs I hope. No xenomorphs either... which gives me an idea of what movie I want to watch. But that's a thought for another time. Right now, from the look Shepard is giving the controller I hold, I think she wants me to join her in the game.

Well, who am I to deny her?

I fix my hold on the controller and enjoy the grin she's giving me. She starts a new game – just for me – and we start playing. From what the quick intro told me, the game is about the Skyllian Blitz – ironic, considering Shepard actually was there when it happened – where two soldiers on shore leave get caught up in the invasion and now fight for the freedom of the civilians and their own lives. The graphics are quite amazing and while I pretty much suck in console playing, the gameplay is still pretty straight forward. The auto-aim helps... a lot.

The game is pretty fun actually. Between the awesome and surprisingly fast gameplay, the lovely combat and Shepard's remarks about what we saw in the game ("This never happened! _I was there!_") I found out that I'm actually having a lot of fun. I also found out that Shepard is damn good in this game as well. She pretty much tore through the batarian slavers and while I already managed to die twice, she barely got any damage at all! "Shit, how come you're so good at this? I thought that being a soldier will take most of your time," I ask as I furiously tap the grenade button.

"Skill. Pure skill," she replies smugly, making me roll my eyes. She's way too smug for her own good. "Honestly though, I grew up on ships. As you probably found out by now, there's not really much to do on a ship, especially when you're a little kid. After a while, I guess mom got sick of hearing complaints about the two brats who ran around the ship and got into trouble when they tried messing around in the engineering deck and simply bought us a console so we wouldn't get into so much trouble," she says with a small, fond smile. "Maybe she just got tired of us running around and wanted us to actually stay in one place. I don't know," she finishes with a shrug.

Huh, I think I heard something wrong... and now I'm confused. "Us?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

She gives me a confused look before realizations shows. "Oh! I'm not surprised you don't know about it. Unlike me, he prefers the peace and quiet of anonymity. My little brother, John. Well, not so little now, since I'm only two years older than him," she adds as an afterthought and chuckles. "Me and John got into so much trouble, hah! Believe it or not, I was the troublemaker in the family. John was, and still is a mama's boy, though I heard he finally got stationed on another ship. About damn time if you ask me. Serving with your mother on the same ship is kinda weird if you ask me..."

I'm only half-listening to what she says since I'm still a bit shocked. Shepard has a brother? That's... actually surprising. I know that some fanfics wrote her brother into the story but... well, I wasn't actually expecting her to have a brother. "You have a brother?" I ask, just to clarify.

She blinks in surprise. "Yes, I just told you that."

"Oh... how come I never heard or read about it? I've read about you on the extranet and there's no mention of a brother," I ask, turning to fully face her and she does the same, the game now fully forgotten.

"Well, as I said already, John prefers to be unknown. I have no idea why. I guess he hates publicity," she shrugs at that. "he's an Ensign on the Perugia now, finally got off mom's ship."

I chuckle at that. I guess it can be pretty awkward to work for your own mother. "So... what does he do there?"

"I honestly have no idea. I think he's a communications officer but I'm really not sure..." and no she looks downcast, looking at the floor with a pained look. "I haven't really talked to him in a while. We're not as close as were. We had a pretty big fight a _long_ time ago."

Oh, this is getting awfully into the personal territory. And I'm getting pretty interested. Despite the fact that I played two of the games, I really don't know a thing about Shepard other than a brief summary. I wonder why I haven't asked her until now. Still, I'm a bit uncomfortable with this whole thing. It's pretty personal after all. "What happened?" I ask quietly.

"Well, as you can see, I'm a soldier and he's... not. He never stepped onto a battlefield in his life. He really didn't like the idea of me becoming a soldier. As he said, I'm the 'brainless girl who acts before she thinks' and that I'll get myself killed at the first opportunity. I think he wanted me to be just like mom, commanding ships and stuff... anyway, suffice to say that I wasn't really polite in my comeback and he wasn't very polite in his either. Since then we haven't talked much. I still check out his progress once in a while, but other than that..." she finishes and shrugs once, looking a bit annoyed.

Wow... that's a long time not talking with her brother. I know she's about twenty-nine, if the extranet is to be believed, so since she had that argument when she was just entering service... that's a really long time. A freaking decade. "So... why did you want to be come a soldier so much anyway? If you argued with your brother so much about it... it looks like it was important to you," I point out, hopefully I'll get my curiosity sated.

"It's... well, it's not complicated, really. I honestly hate ship-to-ship battle. I despise it. I can list off every word that describes hate – in more than one language – and still not express how much hatred I have for it," she starts with a frown, surprising me with it's intensity. Wow, I know I've known her for a short while, but this is the first time I heard her admit that she hated anything.

"Uh... why?" I'm honestly confused about this.

She looks at me pointedly. "Have you ever been on a ship during a battle?" she asks and I shake my head, suddenly feeling a bit dreadful. She let's out a humorless chuckle at that. "then you won't fully understand until you will..." she pauses and frowns. "I was fourteen on my first battle. It was supposed to be a regular patrol and by _sheer chance_ we stumble on a pirate ship that got too close to our borders. Before that I thought that fighting pirates was cool and all. Explosions... being heroes and stuff. Turned out it was the opposite. That was the most terrifying experience in my life. I could do absolutely _nothing_ while the battle was going on. I was utterly helpless. I could just sit there and hope the batarians had a lousy aim."

Shit, when she describes it this way... I really don't want to be involved in such a battle. "So that's why you decided to be a ground soldier?"

She gives me a nod. "Yep. In a fight on the ground everything depends on me. I control the situation. I'm in control, simple as that. If I die, it will be either because I wasn't good enough, or I was simply in a very shitty situation, not because someone got a lucky shot or because someone else screwed up in their calculations."

"Well, I can definitely agree with that," I say with a sigh. When she says it like that, I can easily agree. Fuck, I hope she didn't give the beginning of a phobia or something. "Still, here you are, commanding a ship," I remind her.

She lets out a short laugh at that, this time on that actually had some mirth in it. "Yeah, but you forget that the Normandy was built to avoid combat. The whole stealth system isn't there for show and bragging rights," she finishes with a sly smile.

Heh, good to see the old, smiling, Shepard back. Too bad I have to ruin it though. "That doesn't mean that we'll never get into a fight though," I remark.

She sighs at that, all the mirth and confidence vanishing from her face but that's quickly replaced as she perks up. "True, but as the CO, I have at least some measure of control over the situation... and Joker, who is the best pilot around, not to mention the rest of the crew," she adds and the smile returns. "I'll trust them to pull us through."

With that kind of attitude I can't help but smile too, so I do just that. I dunno, there's just something very infectious about her smile. "Yep, and there's no way they're going to board the ship, with us here," I add.

Her smile turns into a full-blown grin. "Got that right. There's no boarding party in the galaxy who could take us," she states with that infectious grin of hers. I let out a small laugh at that. Between Shepard and the rest of us, Saren will need a damn army to board the Normandy, since anything beneath that will get it's ass kicked. "by the way," Shepard adds as an afterthought, catching my attention again. "You're dead."

Huh? What? With a sudden realization I look at the screen and find my side of the screen displaying 'You are dead!' with big bold letters, while Shepard's character is safely behind cover. What the heck? We didn't pause the game? By the nine hells, who does that! "Aw, that's just bullshit!" I exclaim angrily and glare at the screen while Shepard is laughing to herself, which gives me incentive to give her a glare. "You could've at least paused the damn game!"

She raises her hands defensively. "I could, but you didn't seem to mind that much!" she defends herself.

I give her a deadpan look, which is enough to make her laugh again. Goddamn, now I realize why Garrus seems to be so much against playing with her. She's unbearably good at these game... and she acts like an asshole while playing them. That's kinda... the worst combination possible. Well, I'm Garrus and I refuse to leave the game without regaining at least some of my dignity back. With a mental growl I restart the level and send her another glare. I want to see her try and unintentionally make me die again. Try being the keyword.

Time to kick some virtual-batarian ass!

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><p><strong>Yep, next chapter will feature the Dr. Saleon mission! I really hope I'll pull off what I have in mind, since if I do, I'll have something good here. I won't say any details, but I think you'll like it.<strong>

**Anyway, I guess you noticed that I have added extra backstory to Shepard! Not to mention a brother! I don't think anyone will mind it, despite it not being so original (with so many other authors adding Shepard's brother/sister) but I believe I can pull it off as being both original with what I have in mind. As for why I added a backstory to Shepard? Well, in my opinion Shepard was never really a character, most likely to let the players build up their own version of Shepard in their mind. But... this is not a game and Shepard is not the playable character, so just the origin story from the game is simply not enough for me! I need to expand it and make my Shepard into a fully-fledged character. So expect more!**

**Oh... and how could I forget! Another one of my epic Bioware rants! Yes! I know, I know, you probably heard it before, but you havent heard it from me. Yes, the extended cut came out and while I have to admit that yes, they did fix TONS of plotholes, made it more managle and less of a messy clusterfuck that it was before... we're still not getting the happy end that we all desired. Of course, you get to choose to give the Starchild the middle finger and refuse to cooperate (Many people wanted to do that) but that ends with Shepard just sitting and patiently waiting to die... which is arguably worse than the other choices. So for now, our only option that Shepard survives in is the Destroy option... which is actually better now that the plotholes are destroyed. Funny how with just a few tiny fixes, the whole thing looks so much more insignificant. The mass relays are NOT destroyed, they are just damaged and can be fixed within hours. Of course, that still doesnt explain the space magic, but I doubt we'll get a proper explanation to that. Who _can_ explain it? Either way, while I am an enthusiastic ME3 ending hater, I can't deny that it looks better now. The whole galaxy is NOT doomed to die in all the endings (other than Refuse) so it's a tiiiiiiiiiiiny bit better. We're still not getting the happy ending, but the ending is STILL better than what we had before. I guess we can just take comfort in what we got, since initially they weren't planning on doing anything and leave us with the plotholes. A small victory that is, a small victory.**

**Okay, enough with the rant for now. Next chapter should come out soon, I guess. I don't think I'll be too busy (My pc is acting HORRIBLY. I had to format it 3 times so far(!) to get rid of a problem that I can't seem to get rid of) so if my pc gets worse, I think the chapter will be delayed by a visit to a technician. Let's hope my computer actually cares about me so I could write the chapter sooner :P**

**Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Hey there, I'm back again. Sorry for the long wait. I got stuck doing other things, like Black Ops: The Line (Amazing game. Get it!) and searching for a uni... which I won't be going to this year! Apparently, due to a fully idiotic move, I simply didn't take enough exams! So now I have to wait a year so I could take two extra exams that I should've taken in the first place. Just awesome. Really, I feel like an idiot. So now I gotta find a job and stuff... save up the money for uni and other things. **

**Back to the topic at hand, this chapter is longer than the last one, so it's a plus, and... well, I hope I portrayed Garrus' character well, since it's his mission after all. You'll see the... changes I made in order to make this mission more... captivating. I hope I used this word correctly, heh. Anyway, Enjoy this chapter, and be sure to tell me what you think about it!**

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><p>I slowly move my STG team to the small cliff overlooking Garrus' main forces. A few seconds later they move into range and my STG team opens fire. While that happens I coordinate my vorcha shocktroops to flank his army and charge him en masse. Due to the position advantage my STG team suffers minimal casualties, but they're still dying there from all the fire directed at them. When there are only two salarians left the vorcha finally move into position and I order them to charge.<p>

"Hah, like that's going to work..." Garrus mutters as his army turns to my batshit crazy vorcha troops. I quickly realized that these vorcha are more berserkers than shock troops, simply by the fact that they charge right into the enemy for melee combat, which is exactly what I want.

"You underestimate my power!" I reply as my hundred or so vorcha berserkers – or what remained of them – crash into his army. The great thing about them was the huge melee damage they could deal. The bad thing is they're embarrassingly low health. A single squad of marines is enough to deal with at least twenty vorcha. That's how low their health was.

But that wasn't something to worry about. They were incredibly cheap to make and were incredibly expandable... which is exactly what I need for this maneuver. I quickly order the rest of my forces to move into position and enter my perks menu. I click on a particular perk and choose the position. By this time Garrus flanked my vorcha and is gunning them down but it's exactly what I wanted him to do. I just got him to be in one place, tightly packed for my greatest maneuver ever. I click on his army and watch the fireworks. More accurately, Garrus' face expression.

"What are..." he trails off and his jaw hangs open. With a loud cacophony of explosions, cries of the dead and dying and chaos everywhere, the orbital bombardment is an utter success. His army and whatever remained of my vorcha is wiped off the map. "You didn't," he finally says, looking at me with a disbelieving glare.

"Oh yes, I did," I confirm with a grin. With the amount of perks this game had to offer I had some trouble finding one that was useful enough for me to beat Garrus. Finally, after a while I found a particular perk that also happened to be the most controversial one. Some hated it, some loved it. I guess I was the latter, since the expression on Garrus' face was just priceless. The 'Unethical Warlord' perk opened up several perks that are pretty... well, unethical. The Orbital Bombardment was one of the mild ones. It also unlocked chemical warfare, nukes in later levels and the most awful of all, a genophage. All of that for a penalty to the points you gain from a match. The chances of winning are definitely worth the penalty. And I'm not planning on getting anything other than the orbital bombardment.

"That's... that's cheating!" Garrus finally snaps as he sees the rest of my army move into position and start finishing off the survivors.

I laugh at that. "Nope! If it's part of the game, it's not cheating!" I say, unintentionally reminding myself of my epic rocket launcher handling in most games I played. If it's there, it's meant to be used. People are just sore losers.

"That's just low. Even for you," he says, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Be glad I didn't unlock the nukes yet," I counter with a small grin.

I have to admit that it's pretty odd that this time I'm the one who got Garrus to play a game with me to make him calmer. We came to the airlock a bit earlier while we were still in FTL flight. I don't know why Garrus came earlier, but I got there mostly because I was bored and I was already fully equipped for the mission. Garrus was unusually quite and was pacing around for what felt like hours. He just kept walking in circles, around and around, sometimes muttering something under his breathe. After about ten minutes of watching him I had enough and invited him to game. He agreed, which brings us to this point.

As I laugh to myself the game suddenly gives me a red warning. Oh, what is this? I'm finally winning... so what's the problem? I click on the warning and read the short, yet damning message: 'Incoming nuclear warhead'. Not a full second after I register what I've just read, my whole army is eradicated by an enormous blast. "Wha...?" I breathe out and look at Garrus. He's grinning like an idiot, looking back at me with a couple of snickers. "No. You son of a bitch..."

"It seems that _you_ are the one who underestimated _my_ power," he says cheerfully between snickers.

Motherfucker. Garrus has this perk too. This is just _perfect_. Son of a bitch! And I almost won too! "Ugh, I really, really hate you right now."

"Go cry in a corner," he huffs in amusement and directs the rest of his army at my weakly-defended main base. Well, it's obvious I lost. I was so close to beating him!

"Okay, where is Shepard?" I change the subject. I really don't need another discussion about my epic defeat, and Garrus seems to really love those. Still, it's already past the time for Shepard to be here. I glance into the cockpit and see another ship in the view, floating aimlessly in the vastness of space. We're already here... so where's Shepard?

Oh, speaking of the devil, and here she comes. She looks oddly... pissed as she walks to us, followed by Tali. "She doesn't look happy..." Garrus mutters under his breath and look at me. "What did you do now?"

I raise an eyebrow at that. "Why am I the first thing you blame?" I ask incredulously.

"Well, you're a thug, often mess up things, your tech training ends up with burned equipment and you have a tendency of not understanding how the simplest of things work."

Well, when he puts it this way... I'm still pissed, so I send him an extra glare, which he easily ignores. He's an ass, enough said about that. Finally Shepard is close enough for me to talk with her without needing to shout. I hate shouting when I don't need to. "What got you so..." I try to pick a proper word as Shepard stops and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "curiously annoyed," yeah, that should work.

Shepard sighs with annoyance before she replies. "We got another sidetracking mission. If this keeps up Saren is going to finish whatever he's doing and we will lose the trail," she explains with a frown.

I frown too at that thought. Another side-quest? How curious. I honestly wasn't expecting that many of them to pop up. "So what's stopping you from simply refusing?" I ask in curiosity.

"Well, for one, Admiral Hackett is the one asking me for a favor. Secondly, it's _Admiral Hackett_. I know I'm a Spectre and all, but I'm still part of the Alliance, and Hackett just so happens to be my boss. I can't just _refuse_ when my boss asks me for a favor," she explains with a horrible frown.

I wince slightly at that notion. "Yeah, that can be inconvenient sometimes," I agree. I had several jobs in the past and I know how it feels when your boss asks you for a favor. It's utterly impossible to refuse, since having bad relations with your boss is the last thing one would ever want. I can't recall how many jobs I had to do for free. Annoying as hell sometimes.

"No shit. Now I have another trip that takes my time away from the reason we're out here in the first place," she sighs out.

"Uh, Shepard, if you don't want to, I can go in by myself -" Garrus begins but she interrupts him.

"Nonsense. We're already here so we might as well get over with this thing. You're part of my crew so you get some privileges," she explains with a shrug. "So... shall we go?" she asks with a small smile. We all give her the affirmative and she pats Joker's chair. "dock us with that ship," she orders.

"Would you want fries with that?" Joker shoots back.

"Ugh, just do it. I'm not in the mood."

As Joker proceeds to dock with the ship I decide to inspect the process, mostly out of fascination. I've seen us dock in with the Citadel but that's relatively simple. Joker flies the ship into position and those magnetic things clamp onto the ship and keep us in place. How the process goes with another ship is an entirely different thing as far as I know. At the same time several video feeds pop up on Joker's screen, showing the side of the ship from several angles. The airlock bridge extends itself and I spot several small mechanical arms extend and clamp onto the second ship to hold us in place. Within several seconds, the whole process is complete. Wow, that's... a lot simpler than I expected it to be. "You're good to go, Commander," Joker announces, turning his head to give us a nod.

Alright, let's do this!

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><p>I give Shepard a silent nod and she opens the door. With an audible hiss it slides open and Garrus and I move inside, weapons raised. We inspect the corridor for several seconds until I finally decide that nothing's going to jump us. "Clear," I mutter loudly enough for them to hear and lower my rifle. Shepard and Tali move in and look around, weapons at the ready.<p>

I've got a really bad feeling about this. Even though I know what's waiting for us deeper inside... it's not helping me calm down. Not in the slightest. This place is creepy as hell. It looks as if the power supply is running low because the light's are pretty dim, almost as if they're working on half power. Another detail that starts to creep me out is the freaky silence. It's utterly silent, as if we're on a ghost ship, though after a few seconds of listening I do detect the faintest hum in the background.

"Looks like only the life support is running," Tali remarks quietly.

Well... that's not entirely helpful. Knowing why it's like this doesn't remove the fact that it's dark and creepy. I switch the rifle for my shotgun. Since we're in a ship, I might as well take something that will take advantage of these close quarters. Not to mention that the shotgun proved to be very effective against thorian creepers. Ugh, just thinking about the acid vomiting things make me shudder.

Slowly, we move further inside. The corridor is devoid of life and the other rooms are locked, and Shepard doesn't bother to open them up. We stop by the door fall into position. Just like with the first door, Shepard opens it and Garrus and I move inside, weapons raised.

Huh... this looks like the cargo hold, judging by all the crates lying around. Most of them are stacked up to the ceiling and block more than a few ceiling lams, making the place even darker and filled with copious amounts of ominous shadows, which doesn't help my already nervous brain. While I don't show it much, I can admit that I'm actually scared at the moment. In fact, I'm easily scared of scary stuff. I haven't played that many scary video games, in fact I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Some stuff belong in nightmares... not video games. Not only games, really. I recall being paranoid for a couple of days after reading about Slenderman. Having an active imagination definitely sucks sometimes.

Funny how I can easily take part in a firefight without much fear – I'm nervous for most of the time, but I'm not actually scared – but I'm getting shivers just thinking about some freaky stuff. Ugh, and now I have to fight thorian creepers in almost total darkness. That's just fucking great. "Uh, is it a good time to say that I'm very, very creeped out now?" I quietly say.

"No, not really," Shepard replies, looking around with narrowed eyes.

"Be quiet," Garrus hisses, his rifle still shouldered.

That was all the incentive we need to shut up. We slowly move into the large room, carefully making one step after the another to avoid making unneeded noise. Alerting whoever is left in this ship is the last thing on my mind, so it take double caution in how much noise I made. As such, because of the minimal amount of noise we made, I easily heard the wet noise that came when I stepped on something wet. We all freeze at that and I quickly look down.

"Fuck," I hiss out when I see my boot placed right in a puddle of dark, nearly black, liquid. I don't need to look at it closely to know it's blood. I flick my wrist, activating the omni-tool and with a few buttons, I turn on the flashlight and shed some light into the situation, pun entirely intended. I wipe my foot on the floor, trying to get rid of the blood and then crouch by the puddle. The blood is red, so most likely it belongs to a human, unless there's another race out there with red blood., but that's already beyond my knowledge. Damn, the puddles pretty big. I'm not a medic but I can tell that losing so much blood would kill any normal person. Unless that person is a krogan. But this blood doesn't belong to a krogan, so the person who bled here is most likely dead now. With a cringe I touch the puddle with the tip of my finger. It's cold. It's not fresh, so whoever was bleeding is definitely dead by now.

Wow, it's a bit fucked that I know how much someone should bleed in order to die. Especially considering that I knew these things even before I came her

"Keelah..." I hear Tali mutter from behind me.

"Whoever was bleeding here is probably dead now," I remark quietly. I shine my flashlight at the area around the puddle and catch sight of a small trail of blood leading away from the puddle. It's just a few drops of blood here and there, but it's a definite trail. Either someone was bleeding here and then they left this place, or were carried away... or someone came here and finally bled to death here. I'll go with the latter.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Tali mutters, looking around in obvious agitation.

"Welcome to the club," I mutter under my breath. She's definitely not the only one with a bad feeling. A single thought popped up into my mind and refused to go away: thorian creepers didn't bleed. At least, didn't bleed red blood. Something is terribly wrong here.

"_Shh!_" Shepard hisses, unintentionally startling me. She holds up a hand to stop the questions and just looks around us with a frown. Finally, after several seconds, she responds to our questioning looks. "Did you hear that?" she whispers. Okay, I'm really, really not liking this anymore. Everyone freezes in their place, I think some are even holding their breaths, and strain to hear whatever Shepard heard. I slow down my breathing and concentrate on hearing whatever it was.

It took me about ten seconds or so, but I think I can hear something. It's faint, but it's there. It sounds like... shuffling? "I think I can hear it," I whisper. Damn, all this whispering around makes me even more nervous. If Shepard will suggest splitting up, I'll punch her. I really will.

"I heard it too," Garrus says with a nod. "sounds like something is moving..."

And at this, we all fall silent again. Okay, as I see it, we have a choice. Venture further into the creepy ship to find out what's making the noise or turn back into the safety of our own ship. On different circumstances, I might have gone with the latter... but since it's not my call, and Shepard doesn't seem to worry about this situation, we'll probably head deeper inside. "Let's move," Shepard orders a few seconds later, just as I expected she would. Not that it makes me happy.

We move further inside, carefully and silently navigating through the small maze of crates and boxes. Despite what I expected, it's a lot bigger than it was in the game, and a lot darker too. And considering we hadn't bumped into a thorian creeper so far, I have a feeling that there's something worse in here. I take note that we're actually following the blood trail and that the trail actually gets smaller and smaller, becoming just a couple of drops every few steps. The sound of the shuffling became clearer too and now I could actually discern it as footsteps. Sluggish and loud footsteps.

We reach a corner where the footsteps could be clearly heard, meaning it was right around the corner. I share a look with Garrus and we both raise our weapons before stop out into the open, weapons aimed at whoever was making the noise. A figure in the shadows comes into our sight. "Don't move!" Garrus barks out without raising his voice, just loud enough for the figure to hear him.

I shine my flashlight directly on the figure and I can finally see it clearly and immediately I wish I couldn't. It's a woman, with her back to us. She has light brown hair, but I can easily see the blotches of dark red in various places on her head. The only thing she's wearing is something that reminds me of a white hospital gown, with several blood stains all over the garment. It seems like she was aimlessly walking around but once Garrus ordered her to stop, she did exactly that. Shit, I've got a really bad feeling about this...

I hear something akin to a wet gurgle – I know Garrus heard it too by how he tightens his hold on his weapon – and the woman slowly and sluggishly turns around. I feel something inside me tighten in comprehension... or maybe terror, because somehow, I feel that I really wouldn't like what I see. And fuck it all, I'm fucking right. As soon as she turns around, I can't help but recoil in both fear and disgust. "Jesus fucking Christ!" I yelp as I backpedal as far away as possible until my back collides with a stack of crates, leaving me nowhere else to go.

The right side of her jaw is practically torn off, leaving the jaw hanging there aimlessly. She has this blank stare on her face, almost unseeing and the entirety of her face and neckline are covered, soaked in blood. But that's not the worst part. Her just was just... open, letting me clearly see the insides... but she didn't have any insides. It's as if all her organs were taken out of her body. But she still moved around.. she still turned to face us, still reacted to our presence. "What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!" I repeat to myself as I aim my weapon at the honest to god zombie in front of me. I notice my hands are actually shaking and I try to stabilize them but I don't have much luck with it. I hear a gasp from somewhere to my side and I assume it's Tali. I'm not going to tore my eyes off this thing in case it will attack me.

"Oh, Keelah!" Tali mutters in panic.

At this point I notice that Garrus didn't move at all, in fact, he didn't even react. He just stands there, staring at the undead woman. "Garrus?" Shepard asks, no longer bothering to keep her voice lowered. The turian doesn't react at all. He just stares at the woman, who now started moving towards him, letting out a wet gurgle as she gets closer and closer to Garrus.

"Garrus!" I yell at him. "Snap the fuck out of it!" I scream, almost in panic. She was getting closer and closer to him and then, without any warning, Garrus' rifle barks out a burst of mass accelerator rounds. This is enough of a signal for the rest of us. As soon as I hear him firing, I do the same, quickly joined by Shepard and Tali.

The rounds tear into the woman. Without shields or any other method of protection other than her blood-soaked gown, she was utterly defenseless and the rounds literally tore her apart. She jerks around in places for a couple of seconds until we stop firing. As soon as the fire stops, she drops to the floor, where she moves around for another couple of seconds until she finally stops moving.

Oh god, I think I'm going to vomit. I quickly pull off the helmet, just drop it on the floor and quickly move to the closest corner just as the lunch I had earlier climbed up my throat. I've seen dead bodies before but never... never in _this_ state! A simple bullet hole is nothing compared to this amount of damage and state of decay. I've seen more than one of Wrex's point blank shotgun headshots, and while it was utterly disgusting, I've never seen something like this. I've never seen so much blood on someone, and I wish I'll never have to see it ever again. I cough several times after I empty the contents of my stomach and spit out whatever I have left in my mouth, just to get rid of the taste. And then the smell hits me and my stomach lurches again. Now I completely understand why Shepard was making such a disgusted face. This body was definitely _not_ fresh. Not fresh _at all_. "What the fuck was that?" I ask hoarsely after a coughing fit, my throat still stinging a bit and I spit a couple of times to get rid of the disgusting aftertaste.

"I... I have no fucking idea," Shepard replies weakly as she looks at the corpse, not minding the fact that I just threw up just a couple of feet from her. Judging by her face expression, it looks like she wants to do that herself.

I'm about to state the obvious, that this was a freaking zombie when Garrus interrupts us. "Emilia Fisher, age twenty-seven, mother of two, was visiting the Citadel on a holiday trip..." he states monotonously until he trails off, staring at the woman's face. Everyone falls silent at that and simply stare at Garrus.

This... this is just fucked up. Garrus knows who she is... was. To me it's just a nameless body... well, was, but for Garrus... it's much more personal. Garrus even studied everything about the hostages. I... I don't think I even want to know how he feels right now. Fuck, this is too much.

I go to retrieve my helmet.. and that's when all hell breaks loose. _Something_ let's out a raspy growl behind me, and I hear the sound of running footsteps. I turn around just in time to see a turian, in similar state of decay. Left arm entirely missing, looking as if it was torn off, and his torso had several holes in it. I recoil at the sight and raise my shotgun to fire but it's too late by that time, and the turian crashes into me. I land on my back and the turian lands on top of me.

I try to wriggle the shotgun out to fire it but the turian's weight on my chest doesn't allow me to move the shotgun much. The turian uses his single arm to grab my shoulder, digging his claws into the material, and drag himself close to my face. I take note that one of his mandibles is missing, and his jaws spans at me, as if he's trying to bite me, blood and drool dripping down from his sharp teeth. I also hear gunshots from everyone else, but I'm not risking tearing off my eyes off this guys. Oh, fuck this. Way too close, way too close! Fuck the shotgun. I wriggle my hand out from beneath the turian and reach for my pistol, while my other hand I used to push his head as far away as possible from my face. Once I grab the pistol, I press it to his side, where the heart should be, and pull the trigger several times. The turian jerks on top of me each time a bullet tears through his insides but it doesn't accomplish much, since he's still trying to chew my face off. Time for drastic measures, I guess! I raise my arm with some difficulty, mostly because of the turian's single arm trying to rip open my chestplate, and after a couple of seconds finally press the pistol right against his temple and pull the trigger. A spray of bloody mist comes out of the other side of his head and the turian simply collapses on top of me. I keep my pistol aimed at his head, just in case it wasn't enough to kill him, but after several seconds where nothing happened I remove the pistol from his head and look at the others.

Garrus and Shepard were raining automatic fire on a small horde of zombies – how else can I call them? – and keeping them at bay while Tali was shooting down anyone who came through the path where the second zombie came through. She shoots down a human male but apparently, her shotgun overheats because she changes her grip on her weapon and uses it as a club to beat away an asari that came running out of the shadows. The asari's head snaps back but it manages to stay upright. Well, I think I should help instead of lying on the floor, doing nothing. With my arms now less preoccupied I take aim and release several shots. Two rounds hit her in the chest, making her take a step back but the third round impacts her head. Her head snaps back once again but this time she drops to the floor like a ragdoll.

Tali jerks back and snaps her head at me, probably surprised at my sudden intervention, but quickly turns her attention back to the passage where a salarian came stumbling through. By now her shotgun cooled down and the salarian barely managed to take another step before a shotgun blast sent him to the floor.

And just as suddenly as it started, it was suddenly over. There no hoarse growls, no gunshots, no noise whatsoever other than my own slightly labored breathing. "Is it over?" I ask as I look around.

Shepard was holding her forearm to her nose and cringing like there was no tomorrow. "Yeah, I think so," she says, her voice slightly muffled. And then it hits me too, making me want to throw up again. This smell of... rot is making me want to retch, so before that happens I kick and push off the turians body off of me and grab my helmet. I put it on and after a second the filters start working and I let out a relieved sigh. Thank god for air filters. I climb back to my feet and look around.

Fuck... there are about fifteen or so bodies in here, all in various states of decomposition. Some seem to be fresh while other look like they've been dead for several weeks by now. It's just... fucking disgusting. Some of them look as if they've been purposefully cut open and cut apart and I think I know who is responsible... what a sick fuck.

I glance at Garrus who's looking around with an unreadable expression but I detect a small detail that betrays how much he's pissed. His fists are clenched, shaking violently. "They're all here..." I hear him mutter as he looks around. "Every single hostage..." None of us say anything at that. I don't even know what I can say to that and I'm pretty sure that Tali and Shepard have the same issue. "I'm going to fucking kill him..." Garrus finally states lowly and marches on, stepping over the bodies and making his way further into the ship.

I half-expect Shepard to stop him and make him rethink his decision, since by now I pegged her as a full paragon, but surprisingly she wordlessly follows Garrus, a grim expression on her face. With a mental shrug I follow them.

The rest of the trip through the ship is uneventful. Apparently we killed everything that was hostile in it. If that's the case, I guess it's time to face Saleon. Garrus looks utterly pissed now and I really wouldn't be surprised if he would just shoot the salarian as soon as he sees him. And honestly, I don't think I'll mind him doing it that much. Whatever he did to these people is just... sick. I know the difference between accidental cuts and planned ones. The way they were cut open was surgical. Huh, who would've thought that watching House M.D. Would prove useful in a situation like this... Ugh, just thinking about that bastard cutting them open like that makes me cringe.

When we finally reach the front of the ship and discover the bridge to be empty, this left us only a single room left. We approach the door and without any delays Garrus pushed the button and the door slid open, revealing a salarian frantically turning around to face us, though once he looks at us more closely he visibly relaxes, probably because were... well, alive, for lack of a better word.

"Thank you! Thank you for saving me from those... _things_," he says with a smile and visible relief. What a bastard. How can he smile like this after what he's done with them? I gotta say that he's the creepiest-looking salarian I've seen so far. Bland gray skin with a couple of scar-like lines going down to his mouth and what looked like bags under his eyes.

Garrus doesn't stop at the entrance and simply keeps walk, making his way into the room and toward the salarian. Shepard narrows her eyes as she looks at the salarian. "That's him?" she asks.

Garrus doesn't spare her a look. He keeps his eyes locked on Saleon, as if he's afraid he might run away as soon as he stops looking at him. "Yeah, that's him. That's doctor Saleon," he says lowly and keeps walking to the salarian.

As soon as Garrus says that name, Saleon's eyes grow in size and he takes a step back. "W-what? My name is Heart! Doctor Heart! Please, get me out of here," he says with growing panic as Garrus was already several steps away from him.

"There's no escape this time, Saleon. I'd harvest _your_ organs first, but I'm afraid we don't have the time," he growled as Saleon was taking several steps back.

He frantically tears his eyes off of Garrus and looks at Shepard pleadingly. "You're crazy... He's crazy! Please, don't let him do this to me!" he yells pleadingly as he takes another step back. Soon enough, he will run out of room to maneuver.

Shepard scoffs in disgust at his words. "You should've thought about it before running your sick experiments," she states coldly, sending him a vicious glare.

"Experiments? I didn't do anything!" he shrieked as Garrus finally reached him.

Garrus slams his into his stomach, making the salarian to fall to the floor in a fit of coughs. "Don't lie to me, you bastard!" Garrus yell at him, standing over him in a very threatening manner. "I know what you did! I saw them!" he yells into his face, kicking him down when he tried to get back up. "So stop lying!"

To my surprise, Saleon started laughing. It wasn't the amused kind of laugh, but more of manic, insane laughter. "A shame you killed them. I could do more testing on them had they stayed... functional. But my experiment is a success... at least it was, until you ruined everything!" he says, getting angered as he talks, by the end openly glaring at Garrus. "I cured them!" he yells at him.

"_Cured_ them?" Shepard snaps at this, sending him another vicious glare. "Your so called _'cure'_ killed every one of them!" she says through clenched teeth, visibly restraining herself from doing something worse than a simple glare.

"Killed?" the salarian asks with visible confusion before he lets out a short chuckle. "Oh no. No, no, no. It didn't kill them. The cure is working! It definitely work! Yes, there are a few flaws, but if you kept to your own business, I could've fixed them!" he yells and again, he shifts to anger but gets a kick from Garrus to shut him up. I personally agree with that course of action.

"Fixed them?" Shepard repeats with incredulity. "They were dead, and you took out all their organs! You can't just _fix_ that!"

Saleon descends into another fit of chuckling, though this time I sounds more like giggling. "Don't you see?" he asks with a surprising amount of glee, focusing on Shepard. "I created immortality!" he exclaims with excitement. "Don't you see what I created? I removed the organs, yet they kept moving! I dealt crippling injuries, yet they kept coming! As a soldier, don't you see the potential? No more casualties! Don't you see what our armies could do with my creation?" he yells at the Commander, suddenly looking a lot more insane than he looked before.

As soon as he says that, something in my stomach just drops. As soon as he said armies my mind travels to one group in particular: Cerberus. If this thing got out... they will be the first ones to get their hands on it. Just thinking about Cerberus with the zombie serum, or whatever he created makes me shiver. I hope Shepard knows what she's doing. "He's raving mad..." I hear Tali mutter and I can't help but fully agree.

Shepard's face morphs into one filled with disgust. "You're sick," was all she says before she looks at Garrus, who looks back at her. They lock gazes for several seconds, to me looking as if they were wordlessly communicating, and then Shepard gives him the smallest of nods, which Garrus returns. Without giving Saleon another look, Shepard turns around. "Let's go. I want to get as far away as possible form this place..." Huh? She's... leaving? What? I look back at Garrus and I see him pulling out his pistol. She's just going to... let Garrus shoot him? Execute him like that? "Alex!" Shepard barks out, causing me to look at her. "Let's go," she says and I realize that I hadn't moved yet. With another look at Garrus, who wasnt bothering to look at us, I follow Shepard outside.

"No!" the salarian cries out in panic. "Don't let him do this! Don't leave me with him! Please!" he screams in utter panic but the rest of his words were then muffled by the door closing behind me. I follow Shepard until the end of the corridor, where she leans against the wall, closes her eyes and let's out a long, heavy sigh.

A few seconds later I hear a single muffled gunshot. Several seconds after that Garrus silently exits the room and without saying a word, heads back to the Normandy.

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><p>We finally exit the decontamination chamber – I'm really not complaining this time, considering all the shit that's gotta be on my person after that fight – Shepard heads straight to Joker. "Joker, destroy that ship," she says, glaring at the ship through the window.<p>

"Huh, aren't you peachy mood," Joker mutter under his breath, but we all hear it.

I take a glance at Garrus, who's storming away, almost running deeper into the ship. Shit, doesnt look like he's that happy. Or pleased for that matter. Shepard is busy with the ship, Tali is talking with Shepard... look like it's up to me to talk with Garrus. Damn, I wonder if letting him execute Saleon had been the right decision. It's not the paragon decision but considering what he's done...?

I quickly run to catch up with Garrus. Wow, Garrus is moving _fast_! By the time I get down to the elevator the doors were already closing. Thankfully, Garrus is not pissed enough to leave me there and holds up the doors for me. "Thanks," I mutter as I enter the elevator and stand beside him. As the elevator slowly descends I try to subtly study the turian.

Garrus simply looks... lost. He's just staring ahead, blankly and expressionlessly, as if he doesn't know what to do with himself. I try to come up with something to say but I come up with a blank. I just... don't know what to say to him. I have no idea how to deal with something like this. When the doors finally open I still didn't come up with anything to say so I just decided to do what I do best: wing it and hope for the best? "Hey, Garrus," I say as he walks over to his worktable by the Mako. "are you okay?" I ask and immediately cringe, at least mentally, at how stupid I sound. And apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.

I flinch when Garrus hurls his rifle to the farthest corner of the room with an angry grunt and slams his hands on his table. Everyone falls silent. Ashley and Wrex stare at the turian. Hell, even the acquisitions officer is startled. "Just..." he says quietly as he calmed himself down with some slow breaths. His back is turned to me so I can't really see his face expression and my knowledge in turian body-language definitely sucks. I know more of their face expressions, not body. "...not now. I don't want to talk," he almost whispers, not turning around to face me.

I don't reply. I simply turn around and walk to my locker. Ashley and Wrex give me questioning look but I simply shake my head. I'm not really in the mood to talk either. This mission definitely didn't go as I expected and I'm honestly afraid. Afraid of the things that might so different in the future. The events that might be as fundamentally different as this mission was. My knowledge of the future proved to be relatively useless in this mission, because it was utterly different. Is this what the Chairman meant by saying that just my presence changed things? I... really hope that I'm not unintentionally responsible for creating these zombies. All in all, I'm definitely not happy about how this mission turned out to be. I cast another glance at my turian squadmate.

And it looks like neither is Garrus.

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><p><strong>So... yeah. Didn't really end the chapter on a happy mood. Don't have anything else to say, really. Do tell me what you think of my version of this side-mission. Thanks for reading! Next chapter should be finished soon. Until next time, Delvaro out. <strong>


	32. Chapter 32

**Alright people, sorry for the delay and everything, but I encountered a horrible writer's block crisis. Had some trouble writing anything but I think I got over it! Anyway, sadly, this chapter is amazingly short, but it had to be written, you know how it is. Thankfully, for you at least, the next chapter will be longer, that's for sure.**

**So yeah, I'll keep this short, since most of my author notes are pretty long and boring (I doubt every reader actually bother to read this) so I'll get to the point and start this chapter. So, have fun and everything! Enjoy!**

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><p>The mood on the Normandy was surprisingly... gloomy. At least for the ground team members. The reactions were varied, but mostly they weren't that happy. Liara was genuinely horrified beyond reason, unable to understand why someone do something like that to living beings. Ashley explained it better than I ever could. "Regardless of race, there are sick and twisted monsters everywhere."<p>

After what I saw, I fully agree.

I later asked Shepard why she decided to kill Saleon and she gave me a surprisingly straight reply. "What he did was an abomination. Killing him, or putting him in prison won't bring them back. But if I did put him in prison... there's the slight chance that he could've passed down the knowledge to do those sick experiments of his, and what we saw there should never happen again. There are people that could do a lot worse with what Saleon knew."

Again, and more so with what she said, I can't fault her with what she did. Just on the tip of my tongue I can name one organization who would love getting their hands on Saleon's 'cure'. Just the idea of making undying soldiers would be enough to interest them, not to mention a working method. Even worse, what if they actually improve it, and get rid of the zombie side-effect? That's something I don't want to see happening... so I fully agree with Shepard not wanting to see the doctor's 'cure' – as he called it – seeing daylight. I'm willing to ignore the fact she allowed Garrus to execute Saleon in cold blood.

Garrus... is still pissed... or depressed. I'm not entirely sure. He locked himself up in his room since yesterday and only came out to grab something to eat and then wordlessly leave. Everyone decided to leave him be for now, at least until it doesn't become harmful to him.

And now... I'm utterly bored. We turned around the ship to handle Hackett's request, which happened to be that mission on the moon with the training VI that went batshit insane. Sadly, Shepard's not taking me with her this time, saying something about not wanting the others getting jealous of me for going on so many missions. Also there was that remark about Kaidan getting fat from inactivity, which further enhanced my suspicion that they have a thing going on.

I'm sitting on my favorite spot, lazing about on the couch in the recreation room, wondering where everyone are. With the ship having so many crew members, I expected the lounge to be always filled, but for some reason they seemed to vacant the place whenever one of Shepard's ground team happened to be around. It's kinda annoying, but I can deal with it. I'm not going to complain about the remote rights I get from that deal. Since we're in the Sol system, we get Earth reception, so I can check out what the people of 2183 watch on their Earth-only channels. So far, I'm not impressed. Same thing as I got on the Citadel... just with more humans.

It's really awful how boring it can be on this ship. I thought that being in a spaceship, flying around in FTL and doing awesome things all around is going to be exciting, awesome and... awesome. Just being in space should be exciting, since back in my time that would never be available for me. Sadly, that passed quickly and only after a week or so, the novelty kinda went away.

Ugh, this talk-show is just ridiculously boring. Just a bunch of know-it-all guys talking about the geth, which was at least somewhat amusing considering I knew more about the geth than all of them combined. I've got nothing else to watch, sadly enough and everyone left with Shepard several minutes ago, other than Tali and Garrus. Tali's busy with the engines, doing whatever it is she's doing – though she promised to hang out later today, for which I'm definitely thankful – and Garrus is... not in the mood.

After several minutes of listening to their various geth theories, most of which I spend internally laughing at how wrong they are, the door open and I turn my head to see who it is, eager for some company.

To my surprise, it's our resident turian. Garrus calmly walks in and wordlessly sits on the couch. I stare at him for several moments but the only reaction I got from him was just a tiny twitch of his mandibles. He's just staring at the screen impassively. Okay... maybe he'll talk soon, so I'll just wait. After several minutes of awkward silence where I figure that Garrus is not going to start a conversation I decide to dispel the awkwardness. "So... you okay now?" I ask, looking at him from the corner of my eye.

Garrus stays silent for several seconds before he let's out a grunt-like sound. "Not really," he says. I wait for him to continue but after a couple of seconds he's still silent.

"Well..." I slowly begin, trying to make a real two-sided conversation here. "Shepard told me about your deal with Saleon so after what we saw there... I can't really blame you for being like this," Garrus hums thoughtfully at that, so I'll take it as a confirmation of my words. Hmm, I have a question that I was curious about, so I might as well ask it. "Do feel better now? After killing Saleon?"

Garrus gives me a look but remains silent for several seconds until he finally decides to reply. "At first, yeah. But now..." he pauses, looking down for a second. "not really. All the people he killed... are still dead."

"No one could've known that he was going to take hostages, so as far as they go, you couldn't do anything to save them once he got away. At least now he won't be able to do anything like that ever again."

"I knew they were as good as dead when he captured them," he admits with a noticeable grimace. "but I guess... somewhere inside I still wanted to save them," he finishes quietly.

"It's not your fault man, and I'll say that it's normal if you wanted to save them. You're a cop, so it's kinda part of the job description..." I pause there, trying to figure out what else I can say to that. I rub the back of my head and let out a sigh. "look, uh, I don't really know what you're going through right now, and I honestly don't think I ever want to know what it's like... but if you need someone to talk with, you know, to pour out your thoughts and all that so feel free to talk to me. I'm a good listener, I was told."

The turian stares at me for a couple of seconds until he let's out an amused huff. "I might take you up on that offer. Thanks, and sorry about yesterday."

"Nah, don't worry about it, mate," I say, waving his apology away. He was upset, so I'm not going to blame him for being pissed off at everything.

Garrus looks at me in alarm. "Whoa, I don't swing that way!"

Huh? "Uh, what?" I ask in confusion. Did I miss anything? Was it something I said?

"You called me your mate," he elaborates, scratching the side of his head with a talon. "You're a nice guy and all, but I'm not interested," he finishes awkwardly.

The only thing that I could do at this moment is sigh and palm my face. "Gary, you dumbass," I breathe out, ignoring his indignant reaction. "you should really learn your human talk. By mate I meant pal, friend, comrade... nothing like what you thought."

Garrus stares at me as realization slowly dawns on him and when it does, he let's out a short "Oh," and grimaces. "but you said mate... so I thought..." he trails off.

I scratch my head and chuckle at the poor turian. "Maybe it's the translator," I suggest with a shrug. "you should still learn the way we talk, or you might embarrass yourself. Not that I care, mind you. I'll have something to laugh about."

"Oh shut up," Garrus retorts with a frown. "There aren't many human detectives in C-Sec, so I can easily admit that you guys are the first humans I exchanged more than a few words with," he explains with a shrug.

I chuckle at his explanation, glad that the mood is more cheerful for once. "Poor Gary, living a sheltered life like this," I say with mock sadness, shaking my head in disappointment.

"I'm not sheltered!" he protests indignantly. "And stop calling me like that! You humans and your stupid habit of butchering proper language..." he mutters the last part angrily under his breath. "and what's the deal with the fur on your face?"

I groan at that and run a hand over my face. Great, just what I need. Another turian complaining about my biology. I had enough of that with Jorrun. "It's not fur. It's a beard," I explain but he just looks at me, unimpressed. "Once upon a time, in times of old, a beard symbolized a man's manliness," I say, dramatically running a hand over my small goatee. "The more you had, the more manly you were."

Garrus still looks unimpressed. In fact, I think that if he had eyebrows, he would have one raised now. "So I guess it means that you're not very manly, judging by your beard," he remarks.

I bristle slightly at that. My goat-like beard is awesome, though I think I should get rid of the side-brows. They just ruin my style. "Hey, don't diss the beard," I say, pointing a warning finger at the turian. I would've shaved, but I have no idea where I can find a razor. I'm not really comfortable about asking someone for theirs... and I sure as hell am not going to use a knife for that. I guess I have a shopping list for the next visit to the Citadel.

"If what you say is true, how come I don't see everyone with beards?" Garrus asks with a quirk of his mandibles, probably resisting laughter.

"Because some pansy decided that beards are barbaric and other crap and for some reason, people decided to call it fashionable," I reply with a shrug. For that matter, why are we talking about beards? Shit, I must be more bored than I at first thought. I stand up and stretch my limbs. "Damn, I better go find something to do before I lose my mind."

"You do that. I'll stay here and check out what kind of crap you humans watch," he says. I decided to ignore his quip about humanity watching crap, mostly because it was true. 170 years of evolution and the things I saw on TV is arguably worse than what we had back in 2012. I never thought I'd live to the day where I found news to be more interesting than the other shows.

With a sigh I go to... probably wander around the ship aimlessly.

* * *

><p>"Hey Joker," I greet lazily as I enter the bridge.<p>

"Hey yourself," he greets back, a bit rudely, without turning to look at me. "you came here to annoy me again?"

Wow, he's still mad about it? Damn, annoy him one time and he'll remember it for months. "What, you're still angry about that?" I ask incredulously. That's a bit petty of him.

"Of course I am. I spend my whole day sitting in this chair, flying this ship and plotting my revenge on the people who pissed me off at one point or another," he says as he craned his neck to look at me. "though I do take toilet breaks once in a while."

I snort at that. "That does sound like something you would do," I remark. Joker's not really doing anything at the moment, not that he actually has to. We aimlessly floating, waiting until Shepard comes back.

"Yeah, so you better watch out. I have my eyes on you," he says through narrowed eyes full of suspicion. I chuckle at his antics again. I have to wonder if he's really that petty, or he' just having some fun. It does get more then a bit boring here and considering that Joker is either too busy with the ship and can't really move around that much, I guess he get's more bored than everyone else.

"So what _are_ you doing here all day?" I ask, honestly interested. For some odd reason, I don't really talk with Joker all that much, so I might as well do it now, get to know him, so to say. "Seriously this time."

"Honestly? Not much. I_ really_ have to pilot this baby when we're actually doing something other than flying from place to place. Besides that I got to keep an eye on our scanners, the status of all our systems to make sure we won't spontaneously blow up, look at our fuel levels before flying anywhere. Oh, and make sure there isn't an asteroid in our way," he lists off carelessly.

"Not much?" I repeat in disbelief. Now I feel incredibly lazy. Joker does a lot more than I do, that's for sure. Ground team duties included. "shit, you're probably the busiest person on this ship! Look at me. I spend half of my day doing absolutely nothing other than being bored to death."

"That's because you're not very useful. Actually, you're pretty useless," Joker pipes in. I give him a glare at that. That's rather harsh, even from him. Joker raises his hands in a defensive gesture. "Hey, let me finish before you start beating up the cripple! I mean, other than being on the ground team, you don't actually do anything else... actually, you don't_ know_ how to do anything else."

Well, he has a point there. Tali joined the engineering crew, Garrus makes sure the Mako is operational, Ashley takes care of our weapons, Liara does her research about the Conduit, Kaidan is in charge of the marines and the food from time to time and Shepard is in charge of the ship. Wrex and I are the only ones who're not actually doing anything productive. Wrex admitted that he joined to fight, not to help on the ship but I simply don't know how to help. "You got a point there," I admit. "and how do you even know what I'm doing anyway?" I've never seen Joker go to the lower levels of the ship, other than for bathroom breaks.

"It's my ship. I know everything that's going on here," he says cryptically. Well, I'll believe him on this one. From what I saw, he knows about everything that's happening on this ship. Heh, I don't think I'll really be surprised if I'll discover that he has a gossip network here. I take a look our of the window and just stare at the stars, the moon and... Earth.

Wow, this is pretty... surreal. I've spent my whole life on Earth and the moon looked so small and so far away. And now, here I am, on a ship in orbit above the giant rock. I knew it was like this but it just looks... big. Earth looks so small too, partially covered by darkness. I know it's just... a rock floating around a sun, just a tiny speck of dust on the galactic scale, but at this moment it looks so... majestic. "Beautiful," I mutter to myself. Holy crap, I'm actually watching my planet from orbit! And now I'm a lot more disappointed that Shepard didn't take me with her. The chance to land on the moon seems like something silly at this time, but it's something I never even thought about doing!

"It is," Joker agrees with me. "It's your first time, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I say slowly, still staring at my home planet. "I grew up on that rock. I've seen it tons of times in vids and everything but it's really... different watching it with your own eyes, you know?" it might not be _my_ Earth, but it's still Earth. "I never thought I'd actually leave this planet. I thought I'd get a job and work until I get old or something. Pretty weird to watch it from this place."

"So why'd you leave?" Joker asks suddenly, catching me by surprise.

Well, I'll just go with my legend. "It was a spontaneous thing," _no shit_. "One day I woke up and decided I want to see the Citadel and the rest of the galaxy, get an interesting job there and everything. Earth sucks, really. Same shit, different day. Nothing interesting going on there."

"So you left because you were bored?" the pilot asks with some surprise.

_Fuck no!_ I was kidnapped! "For the most part. I guess I needed some change in scenery. And I wanted to meet aliens. You don't see many aliens on Earth, at least not where I grew up," I say with a chuckle. That was _definitely_ true. "So I just packed my stuff, got on the earliest Citadel shuttle and settled down there, for the most part at least. Can't say I really regret it though. I'm definitely doing a lot of interesting stuff. Much more interesting than what I did back home. More fun too."

"Well, good for you!" Joker exclaims with a smile. "people should do what they want more often. Look at me. I wanted to fly and people told me I couldn't... and here I am, flying the best ship in the galaxy!"

"Hell yeah!" I agree with a grin. "Lots of people just do what they can do, not what they want to do. Then again, if people were doing what they wanted to, the galaxy will have a lot more assholes in it," I add in an afterthought.

Joker snorts at that. "As if we don't have enough of those already," he says with a roll of his eyes.

"True that," I agree with another chuckle. True indeed. It's sad that there are so many assholes around. Too many, in fact. It's even more awful that the governing body are made up from assholes, mainly the Council. Unless they will redeem themselves in the third game, something which I doubt. They only got worse as the series went on...

At that moment of the displays beeped loudly and Shepard's voice fills the bridge. "_Joker. We're done here. Pick us up,_" Huh, that was quick.

"Copy that, Commander," Joker replies in a bored tone and his hands start flying over the displays, doing whatever it is that he's doing. It's simply beyond me.

"Alright man, I'll be going now. Don't want to distract you," I say as I move out of the bridge.

"Whatever you say," the pilot replies without looking at me. "Go find a hobby or something."

Hm, that's... actually not a bad idea! I'm essentially useless on this ship, so... why not find something productive to do? It would definitely be a lot more interesting than just doing nothing other than being bored. Now I just need to find something I actually _can_ do. Or at least something I could learn to do. _Everything_ will be better than this boredom!

Ugh, I can't believe that I actually want us to get to Noveria. I _hate_ that mission. Freaking giant bugs. Freaking. Giant. _Bugs! _I shudder when I think of their size. Ugh!

I can't believe I'm actually _eager_ to see some!

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><p><strong>Like I said, a VERY short chapter. It's short enough to cause me pain. But it had to be written. As you already guessed, next chapter should start the Noveria mission! Obviously, it will be longer than this one (I think it's the shortest in the whole story!) so... yeah, it's going to be fun! Since it's going to be longer, I'll assume that it will take me some time to write it down... so the chapter will be out when it finishes... which will be sometime in the close future. Yeah, I'm not sure myself.<strong>

**So yeah, thanks for reading my story, faving and it and everything! I'm very happy to see so much feedback from you people! I love you, really, I do! So once again, for the 32nd time, thanks reading and reviewing! Until next time, Delvaro out!**


	33. Chapter 33

**Hello again! I am back! First of all, I want to say sorry for the longest delay here, which is born from many, many reasons. One of them is Prototype 2, which is an awesome, awesome game, so try it out. The second one is Magicka, which is an awesome, awesome game that I spent hours playing with my friends, and the last one is the one which will probably cut down my updating time, tragically.**

**I am sad to say that I am now enslaved. Yes, I was busy for the past week and a half (When I wasnt playing Magicka or Prototype) going for job searching and blood job interviews and today (It's 9AM for me now) or tomorrow I should be starting my new job. I'll have only two days off, none of them are during the weekend, sadly, but at least I'll be working until 4PM, which will leave at least some time to write. Fear now, I'll still try to write as much as I can, and my updating time won't be as cut down as I think it will be. Okay, without further delays, enjoy this chapter!  
><strong>

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><p>We step out of the airlock and immediately my face is hit with a blast of cold, freezing air. Whoa. That's... cold. I can't help but grin like an idiot as I slow down and inhale deeply, enjoying the feeling of the cold air entering my body. It's been a long, long time since I've been to a cold place. The Citadel has a comfortable temperature all year long, not too hot and not too cold. It's actually... refreshing to be in such a cold place.<p>

"You can't be enjoying this," Wrex grunts out, looking around with a murderous frown.

"I have to admit, it's not exactly pleasant," Liara pipes in, rubbing her flushed cheeks, probably trying to get rid of the freezing cold.

"Well... I am," I admit with a grin, pointedly looking at Wrex. "I'm Russian. I'm supposed to like the cold. Natural cold resistance and all that."

"Russia's not that cold..." I hear Kaidan mutter but I pointedly ignore him. This is actually the first time I'm hearing a non-Russian saying that Russia is not cold. Back in 2012, for some reason everyone thinks it's snowing all year long and that we live with polar bears as pets... which would've been cool, but alas, it is not so.

"I've heard you talking about it, but what is Russian? From what I know, it's a location..." Liara asks, looking at me curiously.

"Russians are northern people... well, the northern people of the east, living, obviously, in Russia. It's a cold place and all that, always been, and since I grew up there, I'm more used to cold weather," not that it's actually cold there, from what I saw last. The summer was murderously hot, the winter barely had snow and the temperature barely dropped below freezing point. "Either way, it's an old, ancient country. We were like the krogans of Earth. We had so many wars I can't even count them, not to mention the victories. I can count all the times we were defeated on one hand and the only time we were _thoroughly_ defeated, it took _four_ countries to take us down and even after that, we took all the lost territories back in the next war!"

Jeez, I love showing off about Russia. Probably because it had some awesome history, and I'm a small fan of history.

"Alright, enough with the history lessons," Shepard interrupts, though I can detect a hint of amusement in her voice. "we've got company."

I turn to look at the entrance and as Shepard said, there is a trio of armed guards waiting for us. Two human women and a turian. Ugh, I remember them. Assholes. I really, _really_ hope that not _everyone_ on this planet is an asshole... though I'm not going to get my hopes high. "That's far enough!" the woman at the lead states, captain Matsu or something, I don't really remember her name.

We all stop at that and Shepard takes the lead in this... friendly conversation. "Is there a problem, officer?"

"You better hope there isn't," the blond one says lowly as she glares at us. Okay, this chick has a problem. Some counseling should help. We just landed and she treats us as if we killed her dog.

The captain sends her a silencing look and turns back to Shepard. "This is an unscheduled arrival. I need your credentials."

Shepard raises an eyebrow at that, probably surprised more than me that they didn't recognize her. "I'm a Spectre. My name is Shepard," she replies, looking at the woman with some form of confusion.

The blond one snorts in disdain. "What a load of horsecrap, ma'am," she says in disgust. Okay, she's officially a bitch in my book, and she deserves me unleashing my wrath on her.

"In that case, would you like me to bring a shovel for the load of horsecrap that used to be your brain?" I say sweetly with a smile and then I turn to the captain, since she seems like the reasonable one. "Don't you watch the news? First human Spectre right here," I say, jabbing my thumb in Shepard's direction, who seems to be more amused than annoyed.

The now titled Blond Bitch bristles at my insult and looks like she wants to punch me but apparently the presence of her boss stops her from doing anything other than glaring at me. "We'll need to confirm that. Also, I must advise you that firearms are not permitted on Noveria," she says sternly, giving me a dirty look for riling up her subordinate, who she turns to. "Sergeant Stirling, secure their weapons."

And just like that, all hell broke loose.

Stirling makes one step toward us and as soon as she did that, everyone pulls out their weapons and aims them at the three guards. I'm a bit startled at the suddenness that everyone pulled out their weapons and do the same, pulling out my pistol and aiming it at Stirling. As soon as we do that, the small security detail does the same, though a lot more frantically. The turian looks awfully nervous, his eye darting from one to another, probably because of their numerical disadvantage they have.

"_Nobody_ takes my weapon," Shepard says lowly, like a statement of fact.

"Charge and lock!" Blond Bitch barks out an order and I note that her rifle is aimed at _me_. Shit, she's really out to get me. Well, I might as well return the favor. I change my aim at the woman, more accurately, her face.

The captain looks at us sternly. "We are authorized to use lethal force. You have to the count of three to surrender your weapons."

"Hey, hey!" I grind out when I see Stirling brace herself for firing. She's really going to shoot me! Her finger is on the trigger and can almost see it twitching on it. "_Chill,_" I say, mentally cracking up at the pun. It's kinda sad because I've been planning to use it on this mission for almost two days. As soon as I say that, everyone's eyes are on me and a very, very awkward moment of silent ensues. It last almost a full minute before Wrex breaks the silence.

"Idiot."

Shepard lets out a long sigh, looking like she wants to palm her face while the trio of asshole guards look at me as if I'm not right in the head.

Oh, come on! No appreciation of humor! This was a well placed pun! It's not a masterpiece, yeah, but it's surely better than anything they had for this moment! The captain decides to ignore my unappreciated pun, though I could detect something that looked like a pitying glance directed at me. "One..." she starts the countdown and the tenseness of the situation once again returns. "two... thr-"

"Captain Matsuo, stand down!" a voice yells through the loudspeaker, interrupting the captain's countdown. Oh, so it's Matsuo! Cool, now I remember it. Slowly, we all lower and holster our weapons, or in Liara's case, stop glowing biotically. "We confirmed their identity. Spectres are allowed to carry weapons here, captain."

Matsuo let's out a relieved breath. "You may proceed, Spectre. I hope the rest of your visit will be less confrontational. Parasini-san will meet you upstairs," and with that she turns to leave. I make sure to send the Blond Bitch a smug smile before they leave.

"Behave yourselves," she replies with a glare and walks away.

Shepard gives Matsuo a nod and motions us to follow. She gives me a quick glance. "While I appreciate your effort... let me do the talking next time. And for the love of god, don't try making puns again. It was almost painful to listen to," she finishes with cringe.

"Hey! I wasn't that bad!" I protest in vain, already knowing that I can't persuade them to think otherwise.

"On Tuchanka that would've gotten you killed," Wrex rumbles in annoyance.

"What, they don't appreciate humor there?" I ask snidely.

"No. They just can't tolerate the shitty kind of humor," he replies without missing a bit.

Ugh, what a tough crowd. Can't please them at all! "Uh," Liara says slowly. "I have to admit you could have come up with something better..." she trails off, looking a bit uncomfortable at having to point out how awful my pun was. Aw, come on! Even Liara?! That was a classic pun! You _can't_ lose with it! This is ridiculous. 22nd century humor sucks.

We enter the lobby and are immediately blasted by a gust of warm air. Everyone looks more than pleased at it, while I don't really mind. I love the cold, but not enough to willingly let my ass freeze. If it's cold, you just put on an extra layer of clothes. When it's hot, you can either take off your clothes, which is unacceptable anywhere else but your own home... or you can sweat like an idiot.

Approaching the reception area the alarms suddenly started blaring all around us but a woman, the same one who stopped the guards before a shootout happened, told us that it was just the weapon alarms. "I am Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. We apologize for the incident in the docking bay."

Well, at least _someone_ has the capacity to be polite in this place. It's a good thing to know. While Shepard is talking with Parasini, I look around the lobby. This place sure looks a lot fancier than in the game. The waterfall-like fountain, the fancy lighting and everything gives the place a really expensive feel. I knew this beforehand, but this simply confirms it. This ain't a place for the poor, and money rules this place. I turn back to Shepard's conversation.

"...An asari Matriarch passed through a few days ago. Lady Benezia," Parasini says with a raised eyebrow.

Liara immediately perks up at that. "Benezia?" she asks with evident surprise. "She's here?"

Shepard glances at Liara briefly before she turns back to the assistant. "Can I speak with her?"

"Benezia left for the Peak 15 research complex days ago. To the best of my knowledge, she's still there."

Shepard hums thoughtfully. "How do I get there?"

"You'll need to ask Administrator Anoleis for clearance to leave this port."

Shepard frowns and runs a hand through her hair, probably already knowing how annoying this place will get. In a way, she's lucky. I know what we need to go through, and I'd really want to skip over it but alas, I'm stuck in this backstabbing shithole. "Where can I find the administrator?" she then asks, a hint of frustration entering her voice.

"His office is on the main level. Left at the top of the elevator," she supplies helpfully.

"Can we go in now?" Shepard asks, and from her tone I know she expects another reason to stop us from going on.

"Of course," she replies and Shepard visibly relaxes. "If you need any help, you can ask me at the Administrator's office," with that, Parasini leaves us and disappears into the office behind the reception desk. Huh, makes me wonder how the hell she gets into Anoleis' office before Shepard in the game...

"She's here. I can't believe it..." Liara mutters to herself with a frown etched on her face. "I image you want to talk to me, Shepard. About my mother," she continues, turning to the commander.

"No, I don't," Shepard replies, making Liara show visible surprise at her reply. "I know I can trust you. You're not military, but you're part of my crew," she says, putting a hand on the asari's shoulder.

Liara looks down for a moment, seemingly deep in thought before she focuses back on the commander. "Thank you, Shepard. That... means a great deal to me."

Shepard gives her a brief nod and motions to us to follow her. "Come on. We got an administrator to find."

"Finally..." I hear Wrex mumbling quietly, not loud enough for Shepard or Liara to hear. "I've got enough sob stories to last me a century."

"Hey, it's her mother," I say with a frown. It's pretty insensitive of him... not that I really expected much else. Krogan are not known for being emotionally sensitive.

"So?" the krogan replies with a raised brow ridge. "Everyone's got family issues. Doesn't mean I want to spend my time listening to them."

* * *

><p>"What. An. Ass," I summarize when the door closes behind us. I remember Anoleis being an ass in the game, but I think my that I was exaggerating a little bit since I played the game like... ages ago. Sadly, it turned out that he was worse of an ass than I remembered! I've never met anyone who I wanted to punch that much. I'm not violent or anything, in fact I'm not eager to fight – ironic, considering what I'm doing here – but this salarian just grates on the nerves like no other being in the galaxy.<p>

"You can say that again," Kaidan agrees. It's easy to see that the usually nice Kaidan is annoyed too, as evident by the small grimace on his face, as if he swallowed a whole lemon.

"What. An. Ass!" I repeat, gritting my teeth in frustration. What's his damn problem! Where's the fucking _logic_ in this place?! If they want to get rid of us, give us the fucking pass so we could finish our business here and leave. It's not like anyone of us _wants_ to actually stay in this freezing hellhole.

We leave the administrator's office and enter the reception area, where Parasini is already waiting for us behind her desk. "Mr. Anoleis isn't the only one with a pass to leave Hanshan..." she says vaguely, catching our attention. We all stop and Shepard looks at us with a raised eyebrow before she shrugs and walks over to the woman. "You've never worked in the corporate world, have you Commander? You can't bludgeon through bureaucracy."

Shepard looks unimpressed and simply crosses her arms. "Alright," she concedes with a nod. "What would_ you_ do?"

Parasini looks around cautiously and leans in, speaking in a hushed voice, just enough for us to hear. "Talk to Lorik Qui'in. You should be able to find him at the hotel bar. Can't say more. Not within earshot of Mr. Anoleis."

Shepard stares at her for a couple of seconds until she gives her a firm nod. "I'll be seeing you later then."

With that, we leave the fake assistant to her own business and walk out of the room. "You think we can trust her?" Kaidan asks once we're out of Parasini's earshot.

"I have to agree," Liara pipes in. "So far, the people we met we're not... pleasant."

"Hey, so far she's the only person in this place that's actually trying to be helpful," Shepard defends herself, giving a glare at the people around us. Everyone's actively trying to avoid us, and when that fails, actively ignoring our existence. "So I'll take whatever I can get. We need to get to Peak 15 and that's the only way I see it happening."

I snort at that. "Bureaucracy rules this place, Commander. You won't get anything for free in here," I say with annoyance, looking around us. Damn, with the way people turn away when we walk by, some even sending us glares, you could think we murdered their puppies or something! What's their problem? "Ugh, I miss the geth..."

"You miss being shot at?" Liara asks incredulously.

"Not really, but at least the geth are pretty straightforward! They don't give you this cold treatment... and they're not programmed to be assholes," I reply with a shrug, getting a snort of laughter out of Kaidan.

"Only you will find the geth better than these guys," the lieutenant says as he pass by a pair of viciously glaring guards, who obviously heard his comment. "On the other hand, I can definitely see the geth's appeal now..." he added more quietly with an annoyed frown.

It takes us a little while but we finally reach the elevator and step inside. I end up being squeezed to the wall by Wrex's shoulder, something which seems to cause unending amusement to the krogan while everyone else somehow manage to escape his large size and stood there in relative – keyword relative – comfort. Wow, this elevator is... smaller than I remember it in the game. After what seems, and feels, like an hour, the elevator finally reaches our destination and I pretty much jump out of it, letting out a breath of relief. "Next time, we go down in pairs..." I suggest, giving Wrex a glare, which he counters with a smug look.

Everyone else looks at me in amusement. Oh, let's see you get squeezed to the wall by a ton of krogan. I'll see how amused you'll be then!

Okay... we're in the bar now so we need to find this turian. Let's see... okay, there's more than one turian here so it's going to be... harder. Shepard's apparently decides to wing it and approaches the turian closest to us. He looks up from his drink and looks at Shepard. "Afternoon," he greets. "Sit down, have a drink. What can I do for you?"

Oh? Someone with the capacity to be polite? Here? Wow, miracles do happen! "Who might you be?" Shepard asks, taking the seat in front of him.

"Lorik Qui'in," he introduces himself. Wow, we got him on the first try! Awesome indeed! "For the moment, I'm the manager of the Synthetic Insights office."

Raising a thin eyebrow, Shepard leans back in her seat and crosses her arms. "For the moment?"

"Mr. Anoleis closed my office. He claims to be investigating reports of my corruption," he says lightheartedly, oddly enough seemingly unworried that his career, and probably freedom, is in danger. "The administrator is an interesting man. He has become quite wealthy since he took direct control of the rents."

A small, barely noticeable smirk forms on Shepard's lips. "I sense a connection there."

Lorik smirks back. "Indeed," he draws out. "I acquired evidence Anoleis' actions. His hired goons are ransacking my office to find it."

I gotta wonder why he's even telling us this. We're pretty much... well, the personae non gratae here. Except the fact that Shepard's a Spectre and possibly the only person on this planet that will help him. Now that I think about it from that point of view, it makes sense. "Is there anything I can do?" she asks.

"I would never decline charity. However, there is one issue I should mention," he says, and this time some hints of worry enter his voice. "Violence against Mr. Anoleis' thugs may be necessary. He has members of Hanshan's security team searching my office. He is paying them under the table. Ms. Matsuo is unaware of their outside employment."

Shepard seems to mull over his words for several seconds before replying. "I'll focus on getting your evidence. I can't promise anything about the thugs though. Hopefully I won't have to fight anyone."

Yeah, right. As if Hanshan security won't miss the chance to piss us off even more. I get the feeling the Blond Bitch is involved in this and I get the feeling that I'll get a lot of enjoyment from ruining her day. I dunno, she just get's my nerves way too much. In fact, the whole planet gets on my nerves! The whole port Hanshan sequence in the game was incredibly annoying, walking around from place to place for a stupid pass and I think it just makes me annoyed that I have to do it in person now.

"Excellent!" Lorik says with a smile. Here is our pass into our office," he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an OSD. "The evidence is on my office computer. This OSD contains an encryption key to access it. Slide it into the drive and it will auto-execute," he explains to us. Shepard gives him a nod, stands up and leads us away. "Oh, and do try to keep the blood stains off the carpets, would you?" Lorik adds with slight exasperation and hope.

Shepard let's out a snort of laughter. "I'll try. But just in case, don't expect me to pay the cleaning bills," she says with a smirk and Lorik sighs dramatically. At that, we walk away, leaving Lorik to his own device.

"Hm, a nice enough fella," I remark. "friendly too."

"Yeah. I wasn't expecting that. I thought he'd be... well, an ass," Kaidan agrees, repeating my earlier description of the people here.

"Uhhuh," I nod in agreement and then look at Shepard. "What is it with you and people always asking for help and favors?"

Shepard sighs at the question. "Probably because I'll agree to help them," she admits sourly and notices my stare. "What? I don't have to like it but someone has to do it! It just so happens that I'm the best one out there to do whatever people ask me to do," she finishes with a shrug. Okay, that's a rather... weird outlook on things. I don't think I can keep doing all these things that are not related to me in the slightest. Well, another paragon point for Shepard, I guess. "Now enough talking. I want to get this done with ASAP."

* * *

><p>We step out of the elevator, trying to be quiet about our presence. Keyword is trying. Wrex just walks out as usual, not even bothering being silent. He couldn't care less about this, obviously. Anyway, I guess we're trying to ignore that small hitch in our plan and go along as if we don't have a lumbering krogan with us. Our weapons are already out and we're pretty much ready for a fight. I can see a pair of guards through the door but they haven't noticed us yet... but getting inside is impossible without them seeing us. Well, there goes stealth out of the window. Shepard narrows her eyes and takes the lead, calmly striding into the room, making the guards round at us in surprise at the suddenly opening door.<p>

"Freeze! Hanshan security," the female one quickly stops us, her voice trying to be full of authority. "this office is sealed."

Shepard wasn't phased at all. "What are you doing in these offices?" she shoots back the question.

The guard looks utterly surprised at the fact that Shepard could care less about her authority. "The Administrator's orders. Lorik Qui'in is under investigation."

There is an unimpressed quirk of Shepard's eyebrow before she responds. "Anoleis is paying you to shake this place down. Does Captain Matsou know you're here?" she asks, forming a small smile when the poor woman flinched at the sound of her boss.

She raises her hands in a defensive gesture. "Hey, I'm not the one who wants Qui'in. Anoleis has a varren up his ass about this guy. How about this? You pretend you didn't see us, we pretend we didn't see you."

Shepard looks at her for a second until she nods. "Get out of here," she says, moving aside to let her pass. Without waiting another moment, she motions for her turian friend to follow and they both leave the offices.

Well, that was easy, but I remember that there were definitely more than two guards in this place. As if the universe wants to answer my internal question, a sudden shout turns our attention to a lone guard who just came out from around a corner. "Hey! You're not supposed to be here!" and then he notices our drawn weapons and reaches for his own.

That was enough to make us shift our aim at the guard. "Dro-" Shepard yelled but before she could finish the guard opened fire. I don't know who shot first, but the guard was quickly met with a hail of mass accelerator rounds and within a second dropped down, littered with holes. Whoa, talk about shoot first and ask questions later. Either way, the shit hit the fan now. As if the universe wanted to agree with me, a round hit my shields just as another guard came from the same direction.

Shit, I better return fire. I raise my handgun and do just that. We're not exactly in the best position for a firefight, with us being out in the open so the best solution to the problem is to take out the threat as fast as we can. And we do just that. Considering there are five of us and he's on his own... he doesn't last long. He tries to reach the other side of the room to take cover but one of my shots takes down his shields and then another shot from Kaidan or Liara, I'm not sure, caught him in the neck, finally dropping him down.

"What's going on there?" a flanging voice yells and we turn to the stairs leading to the second floor. We find a turian guard is halfway down the stairs before he realizes just what he walked into. "Shit!" he raises his assault rifle and opens fire.

We quickly scatter and I run to hide behind one of the big crates that are here for some unexplainable reason. I quickly open up my omni-tool and press a single button. A second later, it chimes with a pleasant ping and I lean out of cover and aim my overload at the lone guard before quickly going back to safety. A shower of sparks erupts from him, leaving him defenseless and unable to shoot back, an easy picking for the rest of the team. Hah! Gotta love the Quick-Load feature I have now. I basically made a shortcut for my overload. How nifty. Not to mention that my overload is now overheating weapons too!

Since the others are still firing, I'm going to assume that there is another guard there. I see a biotic glow from the corner of my eye and a second later a blue bolt shoots through the air and hits the wall at the top of the stairs. Much to my surprise, when the bolt hits the wall, it explodes with a biotic shockwave and not a split second later the hiding guard comes _flying_ over, landing rather painfully on the stairs. She reaches the bottom of the stairs and doesn't get up again.

Holy shit! A long range biotic shockwave, now _that's_ new! I'm going to assume it was Liara's doing, since I haven't seen Shepard, Kaidan or Wrex doing anything like that before. Then again, they could be trying out new things. I wouldn't know. I'm not a biotic, sadly.

"Hm, area secured," Wrex announces as he looks around but finds nothing to shoot at.

Okay, I think we're good for now. If there was anyone else here, I'm sure they would've started shooting by now. "Alright, let's get to that office. Keep your eyes peeled, just in case. There might be a chance that these four were not the only ones," Shepard orders. Good thinking. I have no idea how many hostiles we still have here, though I do know there will be more on the way back.

Either way, I keep my weapon out and a finger near the trigger. Thankfully, nothing happens and the second floor turned out to be empty. Nothing happens on the way to the office as well and the office is empty too. By the looks of it, the guards hadn't managed to actually find anything. Actually, it looks like they barely even started! Finding Lorik's computer wasn't hard either – it's on the only desk in his office – and Shepard simply plugged the OSD inside and just like Lorik said, everything was automatic.

"Company," Wrex got all our attention with one word. He's standing by the door, looking outside. I move over to him, quickly followed by everyone else, and look out of the door. True to his words, several people in guard uniforms were moving around across the bridge, keeping themselves in a relatively defensive location.

"Looks like it," Shepard mutters. She walks back to the computer and after a couple of seconds unplugs the OSD. "Well, how about we go and say hello?" she asks with a smirk while pulling her assault rifle off her back.

Wrex let's out a rumbling chuckle. "I like that idea," he says, patting his shotgun.

"Uh, well, that bridge over there is not exactly the best place for a firefight. At least for us," I point out, looking at the incredibly open bridge.

Shepard instead just smirks and looks at me. "Don't you worry about it. I've got a plan that they won't be expecting."

I look out of the door again and by sheer luck spot a familiar blonde head and I can feel a smile forming on my face. What a coincidence! Blond Bitch _is_ part of this! Oh, this just can't get anymore better than this! Still wearing my half-grin I turn to Shepard. "I really hope your plan is as awesome as I expect it to be."

Kaidan snorts at that. "Trust me kid. The Commander's plans will either blow us up, or it will be spectacular," he says with a wry grin, getting an offended pout from Shepard.

"Hey, I'm not that awful!" Shepard rebukes. "my plans never blew up! You're making this up!"

"I'm _waiting_ here," Wrex interrupts their bickering before it could start. Too bad. It was starting to get interesting too. "Either tell me this plan of yours, or I'll just go and shoot them in the face," he says with obvious annoyance.

"Well, the plan is pretty simple," Shepard tells us her plan and as she explains further and further I find my smile evolving into a full-blown grin. Oh, this is going to be glorious!

* * *

><p><strong>Yes! You won't be finding out the plan until next chapter! Yes! I'm evil!<strong>

**Well, not the longest chapter but it gets things done. In my opinion, Noveria is the longest mission in the game, and one of the most hated missions for me, mostly because of Hanshan. Either way, next chapter shouldnt be too long to write. I'm planning on splitting this mission into three parts, so... yeah. I guess that's all!  
><strong>

**Thanks for reading the story and for all the awesome reviews I'm recieving from you guys! Makes me feel awesome, it really does! Feel free to leave a review or a PM to tell me what you thought of this chapter, or if you spotted any errors or mistakes too, feel free to point them out. Until next time, Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	34. Chapter 34

**Hello there! First of all, I want to apologize for the huge delay, but I've been genuinly busy with my life. First of all, I finally settled in my job, and finally know when my days off are. The job is pretty taxing, pretty physical too (I hope I'll actually get some muscle from it, and get rid of some fat that I don't need :P) in a store. Yep, I'm a salesman now. Hard to believe, I know. It's taxing on the mind too, since I constantly have to actually talk with people who are one step away from being retarded. Seriously, some of the visitor are just plain stupid and they expect me to be psychic or something. You might know the store too, since it's a Europian company. Leroy Merlin. I'm selling doorknobs. How awesome is that?**

**So yeah, it took me ages to actually sit down and write more than one paragraph and since today is my day off, I fully dedicated myself to finishing this chapter. Yes, I know the chapter is not long but at least I updated, didn't I? Better than nothing I guess. I was usually either exhausted or simply not in the mood to write. Thankfully, days off are a blessing.**

**Also, I was busy with other things, like trying to get a date with what could possibly be the hottest woman I've ever seen with my own two eyes... and well, didn't really work out. Yeah, I'm going to have a rant down there after the chapter. Yay! Another rant. You know I love those.**

**Anyway, back to topic... here is the chapter! Enjoy it!**

* * *

><p>The plan turns out to be... ridiculously easy. Even I can come up with something more complicated in less than a minute. Hell, the plan that Wrex came up with, which just involves shooting people in the face, is more complicated than what Shepard came up with.<p>

To make it worse, the plan simply doesn't include me. As simple as that. The only thing I can do is sit back and enjoy the show. It makes me feel kinda left out, but I can't just deny the truth. I'm simply useless for her plan.

And so, we leave Lorik's office and cross the bridge. The guards have their weapons trained on us, but they're not shooting us yet. Good, phase one of Shepard's plan has gone without a single problem. Hm, I think Blond Bitch just wants to gloat about her self-proclaimed victory of having _temporarily_ block our way. She_ does_ look smug. Now that I'm closer I can easily see that. Ooh, now I can't wait to wipe off that smirk off her face.

"I don't think you're supposed to be here, Shepard," Stirling says, spitting out Shepard's name as if it was something vile. Whoa, she really has something against her. Ooh, now I'm so glad she actually walks closer to us to stand in front of her men.

"Well, you know my name, but I don't know yours. You have me at a disadvantage here," Shepard replies lightheartedly. By the gods, Shepard's trying to annoy her too? This is just priceless. Too bad she said that I should just shut up and let her deal with everything.

"Oh, _now_ you're going to show some respect?" she replies with a sneer. "I'm sergeant Kaira Stirling. Elanus Risk Control Services. Anoleis would throw you offworld for what you did here. I won't. You know what we did to cop-killers on _my_ world?"

"_You're_ breaking the law for bribe money. You know what we do to dirty cops on _my_ world?" Wrex pipes in. Huh, I want to know that too. More because I didn't even know Tuchanka has any law enforcement... or any laws for that matter.

"I didn't want to fight them. They fired first. If you had some control over your men, that wouldnt have happened," Shepard says with a frown. True enough, she did yell at them to drop their weapons. They didn't.

As far as I'm concerned, our conscience is clean. As Wrex would say, we're doing the galaxy a favor for removing morons who would pick a fight with us... since only a moron, or someone actually capable would do that, and these guards were definitely _not_ the latter. Shit, I'm getting pretty morbid now that I look at myself.

Stirling narrows her eyes. "Well, I don't need a gun to rip you to pieces."

"Me neither. If you don't move aside, I'll _push_ you out of the away," Shepard says, putting much emphasis on the push word.

Aaaaand... there's the signal and sadly, I'm not ready for it at all. As soon as Shepard says the word 'push' biotic energies _erupt_ from everyone but me, the force of which actually creates a small shockwave that knocks me back onto my ass, practically _blinded_ by the sudden biotic glow my team started producing. Stirling and her group was caught completely off guard by the sudden biotic pseudo-flashbang that just went off in front of her face. And then... the _push_ part of the plan came to be.

As one, everyone launches a biotic shockwave and considering we have Wrex and Liara with us, that's some freaking powerful shockwave they add into the mix. I half-way expect to hear the common '_whoomp_' sound but instead of that I hear something more akin to a roar, quickly followed by the sounds of a lot of things breaking, crashing and other sounds usually associated with destruction. It wasn't a biotic shockwave. It was a freaking biotic _tsunami_.

Once my visions finally stops being so bright and the biotic glow coming from everyone stops I'm finally allowed to see what the hell we did here. "_Ho-ly shit!_" I exclaim in shock and excitement.

The floor essentially turned into gravel. The combined biotic shockwave was so powerful, it freaking broke the floor into small pieces! In fact, everything that was on the path of the shockwave suffered the same fate. As for Stirling and her men... I have no idea where they are. Holy crap, did we just vaporize her or something?

Damn... now I'm feeling even more left out. I absolutely had no hand in this destruction, and I'm feeling slightly... sad about it. Being the only one on this mission's ground team without biotics sucks.

Kaidan offers me a hand and I numbly take it, letting him pull me off the ground. I slowly walk over to the broken area to inspect the place more closely. By the nine hells, this place is in ruins! Everything that was weaker than whatever the walls are made of is simply gone. Oh, there is Stirling. I spot her lying on the floor on the farthest end of the room, her blond hair matted with red with a small puddle of blood pooling around her head.. On the wall above her I spot a rather large splatter of blood, which explains the head injury. She probably flew into the wall head first...

"Well, that takes care of that," Shepard remarks, slightly out of breath.

I turn my head to stare at her. "No shit," I say. "I am never going to feel safe around biotics ever again. Not after seeing this happen."

Shepard gives me a wide smirk with a nod. "Good idea."

"Hm," Wrex grunts out, kicking one of the unconscious, or dead guards that are lying all over the place. "Dead," he announces with annoyance. Okay, that answers my question. That thing was strong enough to kill them. "I'd expected more..."

"Nah, don't worry. We'll have more things to kill," I say to him. It should cheer him up. We have geth and rachni ahead of us, which is like... a dream come true for most krogan... or a nightmare. Dunno.

"It seems like it's a common occurrence with Shepard..." Liara pipes in helpfully, getting a hurt look from Shepard.

"Really? You too?" she asks with a ridiculous pout. "why does everyone think I'm so kind of... harbinger of destruction?"

"Uh, because things blow up around you way to frequently to be a coincidence?" I supply helpfully, getting a nod of confirmation from Kaidan.

The commander rounds on me with a frown. "You're part of my team, so you're at fault too!" Oh, she's pulling the team card on me, is she? Well, I got a counter for that! Lucky me.

I gesture at the room around us, or more specifically, what used to be a room. "I'm not a biotic," I point out with a smile. "We could've just shot them, made a couple of holes in the wall but _no._ You wanted to trash the room into oblivion," I continue my assault, still wearing my smile. And now... for the finisher. "I wonder what Lorik will say..."

Shepard winces at that and everyone turns to look at her. "Uh... okay, you got a point there. Just in this case!" she says, still defending the other time she cause major property damage. "I think we should get out of here now. I really don't want him charging us for the repairs..."

Huh, I like how she said 'us' instead of 'me'. Pft, as if we can actually help her pay for anything. She won all our funds in that damn poker game. We're all poor at the moment... other than me, since I'm actually getting paid for this. Either way, she's probably right. Considering where we are, they'll probably hang a huge debt on our necks for the damage we caused so far, including the casualties.

* * *

><p>We walk out of the elevator – the victim of Wrex's bulk was Kaidan this time – and nearly bump into Parasini, who apparently waited for us down here. "Commander. There've been reports of noise from the Synthetic Insights office. Would you know anything about it?" she asks as we approach.<p>

"It's probably Anoleis' thugs ripping the place apart," she replies casually. Uhhuh. They're ripping the place apart? Yeah right. Whatever you say, Shepard.

"Smartass, hm? That's fine. I can work with that," Parasini says, not looking impressed. "Meet me at the hotel for a drink, before you talk to Qui'in. I'll be waiting," and with that, she leaves us stading there, with Shepard looking a bit confused.

Wow. The universe is pretty much lining these up for me! "Kinky," I remark. "Wow Shepard, you've got skills. I wish _I_ could score a date that easily," I say, snapping her out of her confusion and making Kaidan let out a snort of laughter.

"What? It's not a- ugh, never mind. Let's just go and see what she wants," Shepard decides not to respond to my well placed joke. Well, too bad she lined up another one!

"Really? All of us? Uh, I'm okay with a threesome but more than that is a crowd. Six is a but much, don't you think?" I ask with mock surprise. "huh, I didn't think you swung that way..."

I get another snort from Kaidan and Shepard turns around – her face is a tab bit red, isn't it? – and gives me a halfhearted glare. "Just... be quiet. Please?" she asks in exasperation.

Hah, I'm on a roll today!

We start making our way towards the hotel bar silently. I'll guess that my jokes are starting to get on Shepard's nerves. And she did ask nicely, so I might as well oblige. Hm... I wonder if there is another dimension or universe where someone is currently playing Mass Effect... with me in it. Heh, that would be kinda cool. Actually, more than cool. If other dimensions exist – and I pretty much already have proof that they do, considering I'm the resident dimensional traveler – and Mass Effect exists there, it technically makes me a Mass Effect character. How awesome is that?

Hm... we just reached the main lobby, and Parasini is nowhere in sight. I don't get it, did she run to the hotel or something? We weren't that far being her...

Either way, the journey to the hotel is pretty much boringly tame. The guards and other people now actively avoid us, probably because of the rumors on noise in Qui'in's office, which doesn't leave much for the imagination.

As we enter the bar we spot the woman standing alone by one of the tables, apparently waiting for us. Huh, I _do_ have to wonder at how fast she got here...

"Allow me to reintroduce myself," she spoke up once we approach close enough. Gone was the relatively... gentle tone she used with us just when we arrived. Now she's practically _leaking_ confidence. "Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at that. "Why is there an Internal Affairs agent here?"

"The Executive Board knows about Anoleis' corruption. I've been undercover for six months. I want you to convince Qui'in to testify before the board. With his evidence, this planet can run profitably again."

"I'd like to help you, Miss Parasini, but I need Qui'in's garage pass. Can't complete my mission without it," Shepard says apologetically.

"Yes, yes, fate of billions and all that," she says with a roll of her eyes. "I couldn't possibly understand how important your work is."

Heh, I like her already. "Well, technically, Anoleis is the one not giving us a pass..." I trail off from there, since it's pretty obvious what I mean.

Kaidan immediately get's it and nods at me. "We'll be getting rid of the source of our problem."

"Look Shepard, I don't like this either," Parasini clarifies. "You Spectres play fast and loose with the law. That's bad for business."

Shepard finally gives in and sighs out, whether it's in frustration or exasperation is unclear. "Alright, alright. I'll talk to Qui'in and see if I can convince him."

Parasini gives us a smile. "Thank you. You know where I work. Come talk to me once you know if he'll play ball," she says and walks away.

"Well, let's go see Qui'in," Shepard says with a shrug and walks to the other side of the room, where our friendly turian businessman sat,

"Always a pleasure, Spectre!" He greets us with a small turian smile. "Any news on the matter I asked you to look into?"

"Your carpets are clean," Shepard greets back, making me snort in suppressed laughter. Yeah, the carpets are safe. Can't say the same about the rest of the office, if it can even be called that. "but an Internal Affairs investigator contacted me. She wants you to testify against Anoleis."

And just with that, gone was Lorik's friendliness and cheerfulness. "Now that you have _my_ property, you want to dictate how I use it? I have no interest in a public spectacle."

Shepard narrows her eyes at that. "Everyone on this station is chafing under Anoleis' extortion. You'd be a big damn hero!"

"My employers rely on the goodwill of the Executive Board to work here," he says, obviously somewhat affected by Shepard's words. Hm, apparently he won't mind being a hero, huh?

"If these 'executives' don't blame Anoleis for provoking this, they're fools. You should eat them," Wrex breaks into the conversation. Okay, what is up with Wrex and eating people? It's slightly disturbing...

"Alright!" Lorik finally breaks. "It's obvious that I cannot dissuade you," he lets out a long sigh and hands her what I assume is his pass. "Very well. I will testify. Make whatever arrangements you need with your contact. I will wait here."

"Excellent," Shepard says with a bright smile and the turns to us. "let's go!" and with that she leads us on another trip through the station. Goddammit, this is the reason I hated this mission...

* * *

><p>"Spectre. Have you given any more consideration to my offer?" Parasini asks when we step into the reception room.<p>

"It took some persuasion, but Qui'in has agreed to testify," Shepard answers with a small smile.

Parasini sighs in evident relief, allowing her shoulders to sag a little. "That's a world of stress off my back. I'll take the evidence for safe transport," she says and Shepard hands her Lorik's OSD. "Hm, I didn't think you'd help me, being a Spectre and all. I guess some of you can be alright."

"Doesn't this help you? You don't seem to be particularly happy," Shepard remarks curiously. Hm, Parasini just looks... tired, I guess. I have to wonder that myself.

"I'm ecstatic," she replies flatly. "but right now, I just feel like a long day of work is ending. I have an arrest to make. Wish I had time to change into something easy to move in. I hate skirts," she mutters the last part and walks into Anoleis' office.

We stand there for several seconds until we finally hear Anoleis' voice. "This is an outrage! I'll see that you never work in this sector again!" he yells and Parasini comes into view, pushing the salarian – rather expertly – in front of her.

"Yeah, yeah, get a move on," Parasini replies with a roll of her eyes.

Anoleis then notices us. "You! Shepard! I demand you place this bitch under arrest!" Wow, he has the balls to _demand_ something from Shepard?

Apparently, Parasini didn't like the bitch comment, since she promtly kicked him in the back of the knee, making him stumble and land on his other knee in a rather painful manner. "You have the right to remain silent. I wish to God you'd exercise it," she says as she pulls him up and pushes him in front of her again. "See you around the galaxy Commander. I owe you a beer!" she says just before she exits through the door.

"Good," I comment on that. "And we didn't have to blow up his of-"

That get's me a glare from Shepard. "Don't you even think about starting," she cuts me off, pointing a threatening finger at me. I promptly shut my mouth. When people angrily point fingers at you, it means something bad might happen. Just my experience.

"I'm just glad we can finally leave this place," Kaidan sighs out as we head to the garage.

"Yeah. Should be a lot more fun," I say, feeling slightly elevated that we're finally leaving this place. Too much walking around to be entertaining. I hate walking around from point A to point B without any good incentive. I'm lazy like that. Speaking of fun... I look out of the large lobby windows at the very, very unappealing blizzard that's going on outside. "Oh... maybe it won't be that fun."

From the expression that Wrex puts on at the sight of the blizzard, I think I'm not the only one thinking this is not going to be so fun.

For once, passing through this place isn't much of a chore. As we pass through, I catch snippets of the latest news, which were about Anoleis getting himself arrested. I don't mind really, as long as they stop glaring us they can talk about whatever they want. It's so much easier walking around without annoying people expressing their dislike with the silent treatment.

We reach to the garage without event and approach the gate where a visibly nervous guard awaits us. "A-access to the garage is restricted," she says apologetically. Wow, Shepard must be scaring her for some reason, enough to cause her to stutter.

"I have authorization," Shepard replies with small smile as she shows her the pass we got from Lorik. "Excuse me."

The guard visibly relaxed and looked over the pass. I get the feeling she expected something else to happen. "Yes, that's genuine. Drive safely. The weather is supposed to be pretty bad out in the Aleutsk Valley."

Without anything else to say, she gave back the pass to Shepard and opened the door for us. The commander gives her a parting nod and we enter the garage. Hm, I recall that there should be a battle here so... where are the geth? We take several more steps into the garage when all of a sudden, something jumps out from behind a stack of crates and lands on the ceiling, where it glares at us with a single red eye. "Hopper!" I point out the obvious loudly as I reach over my shoulder and pull out my assault rifle. As if my shout was a signal, from the farthest end of the garage several geth units walk out, two of the being destroyers, already charging in.

"So that's what the asari had in the crates," Wrex muses loudly as he pulls out his shotgun and we move behind the closest thing we could use as cover, the large parked vehicle and several crates.

"You're pointing out the obvious! Just shoot them!" Shepard barks out as she launches a biotic pulse that caught one of the approaching destroyers, causing it to stumble and crash to the floor. The sound of metal grating against metal filled the garage for several short moments until the destroyer finally came to a stop.

I, on the other hand decide to focus on the small jumping sniper grasshoppers on crack while Shepard and Wrex chose to deal with the destroyers. Sadly, it proved to be harder than I first anticipated because I just couldn't hit the damn things. Well, I could hit them, but I just couldn't hit them enough to deal some actual damage. "I need some biotics here!" I yelp out as I duck behind my crate when several rounds pinged around me, way too close to my liking.

"I'm on it!" I hear Liara reply and a moment later, one of the hopper loses all his momentum and simply hangs in the air aimlessly, easy pickings for me. "Thanks!" I yell out as I pump the hopper with mass accelerator rounds. Its shields don't last long and withing seconds he's down. I'm about to shoot the geth troopers that just came out of cover when suddenly something big crashes into my crate, knocking me on my back.

I quickly scramble back on my feet, glad that for once I didn't lose my weapon, and look at what just ruined my cover: a geth destroyer with a large hole in his chest. "Sorry, didn't see you there," I hear Wrex mumble out in an afterthought, and I see that he's not even looking at me. Oh, that big oaf! Who the hell flings geth destroyers at his own teammates?!

For a second I worry that something might shoot me since I'm out of cover but thankfully, that doesn't happen. Kaidan biotically pins down the last hopper and Shepard finishes it off with a few well placed shots from her heavy pistol.

We stand there for a few seconds, half expecting another wave of geth to show up but instead the sound of an opening door and weapons being primed from behind us causes us to turn around sharply and see captain Matsuo stand there, looking at us with confusion and surprise. "What the... what are these things?" she asks aloud as she looks at the dead geth strewn around the garage and then turns to the guards accompanying her. "Fan out! Secure the area! No one gets in or out!" she barks out and glares at Shepard. "What did you do here Commander?!" she demands angrily.

"Me?" Shepard asks incredulously. "I'm the victim! The geth attacked _us_!

Matsuo looks at Shepard in disbelief. "Geth? You expect me to- where did they come from?"

"The asari bitch came with a bunch of cargo. They were probably packed in those," Wrex supplies helpfully. I frown at that. Jesus, he could at least call her by name in front of her daughter! Shit, I know that I'll be epically pissed if someone who was supposed to be my ally called my mother a bitch in front of me.

The captain looked at the ground with a furrowed brow. "I don't believe that. We did thorough scans of those. There were no power sources, no element zero masses... if Benezia-sama's containers were packed with those _things_... there are many more out there," she says with growing worry in her voice.

"And that's exactly why I'm here. I need numbers Captain. A dozen? A hundred?" Shepard asks.

"Dozens at least. They're machines. You can pack them tightly," she then lets out a long sigh. "I must report to the Executive Board. If word gets out about loose geth, there may be an investor panic."

With that, the captain leaves, wordlessly giving us approval of our mission. She didn't ask what we were going to do, or anything else for that matter, and the guards aren't trying to stop us from what I see. Yep, Captain Matsuo is definitely going to my 'Good guys' list. "Alright, this doesn't really good look if this place is already crawling with geth. We're not even close to Peak 15," I say with a frown.

"He's right," Kaidan agrees. "I think it's safe to say that Benezia is expecting us if there are geth so far out of Peak 15."

"Well then," Shepard says, holstering her pistol and gives us a small smirk. "Let's not disappoint her," she says as she starts walking towards the Mako that's parked near the exit gates. Damn, as far as pep talks go, Shepard's are the best. Just a few words and I already feel like I'm ready to kick some major ass. I send a glance at Liara, only to see a determined frown on her face. Well, at least she's not too conflicted about facing her mother, at least right now. Once again, I find myself at a loss about what to do with Liara. I have no idea how she feels right now, and I don't want to ever find out. Either way, we still have to get to Peak 15 to worry about the encouter with Benezia... not to mention the shitload of rachni we have to go through. Ugh, I hate this mission. We get into the Mako one by one with Shepard, much to my dismay, being the designated driver and Kaidan taking the gunner seat.

Fuck, we're going in the Mako. With Wrex. Why do I get the feeling that once again I'll be squashed between a krogan and the wall?

* * *

><p><strong>And that's the end of chapter 34! Yeah, sorry that this is short, but I felt that I should update by now, so this is what I got at the time frame that I had. First of all, i want to thank to all those who reviewed and read this story. When I open my email and see the review notification, my mood hit's the ceiling. Seriously. You just make my day, and I want to thank you for it. When I started the story, I didn't expect to see so much positive feedback. <em>In fact, I only got positive reviews!<em> I maybe got a review or two that pointed our a small flaw or mistake, but it was still positive in nature! You guys simply rock. Simple as that. I'm still shocked that it's been around half a year since I started this story and most of you people are reading this since day one. It makes me feel awesome, and thus... you guys are freaking awesome for making me feel freaking awesome. Thakn you! **

**Now, I'm going to rant a bit. If you're not interested in reading my ramblings, you can consider the chapter over. But if, on the off-chance that you might actually find my bland and boring personal life interesting, feel free to read my brand new rant about whatever I encountered in my life! Thanks again for reading this story. If you're not going to read my rant, for now it's over. I'll try to update soon! Delvaro out.  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Okay... now here is my brand new rant... which is about women! Yeah, I bet you didn't expect that! Well, me neither, but I have to empty out my soul somehow, I think. I'm pissed, disappointed, annoyed and simply angry at how things turned out. I met this gorgeous, beautiful and stunning young woman in my new workplace. After mustering whatever courage I could find, I went over and introduced myself. Surprisingly it went well! We hanged out whenever our breaks happened at the same time. We talked. We learned about eachother, got to know eachother better and through the whole weak I started to like her even more, since she's an actual fun person to hang around! I treated her to tea a couple of times at the coffee machine (yes a coffee machine that serves tea. I was surprised too) I tried inviting her out for a movie, and she surprised me by saying that there are no interesting movies out right now, so we could go later once something interesting comes out. She even gave me her phone number! Sounds good, right? I thought so too! So yesterday, I muster up my courage again and ask her out on a date. And guess what happens? I get the hardest, most painful kick in the nutsack that I could ever recieve.<strong>

**"I've already got a boyfriend."**

**What. The. Flying. Fuck? She said that. Needless to say, I was stunned. What the fuck is up with that?! She was even surprised that I didn't know! And get this: I actually met him earlier this week. Yes, I met her boyfriend without knowing he was her boyfriend. It's fucking priceless. I don't fucking get it. I don't know how many of my readers are female, but I'm going to assume that the number is enough, so maybe one of you might be able to logically explain this. Why couldnt she just tell me about such a major fact in advance?! I just feel... cheated right now! I'd honestly prefer a solid 'No' instead of this coy and playful way to utterly destroy my mood. Why let me fucking start liking her even more before shooting me down like that? If she just said no, she'd just be a pretty face that didn't want to know me. I'd be a bit disappointed for a few hours, but I would've gotten over it like it was nothing. Not the first time I've been turned down. Won't be the last either. But instead, she allowed me to learn about her, know more about her and enjoy her company and thus, I started liking her more. She's not just a pretty face now, she's a interesting person! And I feel cheated, offended and annoyed that I suffered through this treatement.**

**It's not like I was fucking vague with my intentions. I believe that I was very clear that I was pursuing a relationship. A question for my female readers (I hope I got any, otherwise it would be awkward). If some guy comes out of fucking nowhere, introduces himself and starts asking questions about you, sometimes asks what you're doing on weekends and asks if you want to go out for a movie... what would you think? I don't get it. Was I not clear enough? Do I have to approach a woman and simply state what I want? "Hi, I like you. Would you like to go out on a date with me?" I'm fucking tempted to do just that, so I could just recieve a no or yes. I'm fucking tired of all this dancing around the subject, all the nerves and time I wasted getting ready for the subject of dating. What, do i need to use the 'Call Me Maybe' pick up line or something to be clear enough with my intentions? I know, I know that some women don't want to be harsh and will try to be nice about it, but I honestly know a lot of guys, me included, that would prefer a definite answer, without dancing around the subject. I'd get a no, I'll simply walk away and try with someone else, because as long as they are just a face in the crowd, they don't really matter. But she fucking allowed me to get to know her, and she's no longer just a face I've seen a couple of times. She's a person I know, and I'm honestly pissed.**

**So now I have a choice. Either I forget about her and try to find someone else who is single and is willing to tolerate my presence... OR, I venture into the heart of the friendzone, be the best pseudo-boyfriend I can be to her and once she breaks up with her boyfriend, I'll be there to pick up the pieces, so to say. They've been together for about two months now, so there is still some hope in there for me. Either I get burned hard and crash into the ground, or I fucking win. I'm tired of losing like that. I was turned down way too many times by now. I'll suffer, I'll burn but I'll never surrender. Yes, I just quoted a Combichrist song. I'm that annoyed by this situation.  
><strong>

**So yeah... I'm probably going to venture into the place where no male has ever willingly entered. Wish me luck, I guess. I'm still feeling cheated about the whole thing. She's still willing to be a friend to me, and I guess it's not obvious that I've been pursuing a relationship with her (Unless I havent been obvious enough), so she might see in a different light now. Dunno. I'll see how this clusterfuck goes. I'll probably get beaten up by her boyfriend at one point, considering my low luck rating. So yeah... until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	35. Chapter 35

**Well, I'm back! So Hello again! Once again, sorry for the delay. Work has the habit of taking all my time. I know I said this chapter will be longer, and hopefully will end the Noveria mission... but it's not. Yes, yes, I know I said it but I felt that I should update already. This week has been HELLISH. Most of the week was composed of second shifts, which is from 1300 to 2215... which leaves me no time at all to do anything. Barely had time to even write a paragraph. So I decided to once again, cut the planned chapter in half, and give you this. Next chapter should finally end Noveria, hopefully, and we should go on with the story!  
><strong>

**Now, without more delays, enjoy the new chapter!**

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><p>That's it. I'm not sure if I should actually be surprised about it... but I finally crossed the threshold into insanity. I'm rather shocked about it, really.<p>

I'm also rather shocked that I'm actually thinking about this while sitting in the Mako, which happens to bounce a lot awfully close to the edge of the cliffs – as evident by Kaidan's constant panic-filled shouts whenever the Mako bounced one time too much – all the while we are getting shot at by geth turrets... and being utterly scared.

Despite how ludicrous that feels, I'm also kinda bored, mostly because I just can't see what's going on outside, and all I'm left to do is sit in place, doing absolutely nothing but wait until we reach our destination, and this is what shocks me so much. I'm sitting in a freaking Mako, getting shot at with anti-tank turrets and I'm bored. The Mako shakes violently as another missile hits the impacts the grounds a bit too close for Kaidan's liking. "Shepard, can you _please_ watch the road?" he pleads in desperation as he turns our turret around to return fire.

Oh, Shepard and Kaidan were bickering like an old married couple over the Commander's driving skills. It was a bit fun at the beginning, but now it just got annoying... not to mention scary, because Kaidan was freaking right!

"_What_ road?" Shepard shoots back, much to my horror, tearing her eyes off the road just as she uses the thrusters to launch us into the air to look at Kaidan. The feeling of weightlessness stays in place for a second or two before my insides rise up into my throat and we land with jaw-rattling force. "You think I can actually _see anything_ in this blizzard?!"

By the nine hells, if I wasn't scared then, I am officially scared shitless now.

Wrex looks like he just doesnt care and Liara seems to be a full shade paler, and I can see the whites of her knuckles from how hard her grip is on her safety harness. Guess I'm not the only one who thinks Shepard's driving skills are terrifying. Heh, I bet we can defeat Saren just by tying him up in the Mako and let Shepard drive around...

"Are we there yet?" Wrex asks, full of irritation. Ugh, that's so like him, utterly unimpressed by what is happening around us. Just at that moment the Mako swerved sharply to the right and a split second later another explosion rocked the vehicle.

"Would you mind shooting that thing down already?!" Shepard barks angrily, sending an irritated glare at Kaidan.

"How? I can't see where it's shooting us from!" Kaidan replies, sounding frustrated as he glares at his screen.

Wrex grunts in annoyance at the way they ignore him, much to my amusement. "Ugh, just go and get a room already," he growls but once again, he's being completely ignored.

Exactly at that moment the Mako comes to a sudden halt and I'm thrown to the front of the vehicle... or I would have if I didn't have the harness to keep me in place. As it was, I just bumped my head against Wrex's armor – which is quite solid, as my head can testify – and it was quickly followed by a string of curses that would make a pirate blush, which came from Shepard, much to my surprise. "Who the hell put a mountain in the middle of the goddamned road?!" Shepard yells in indignation.

I just rub my quickly-growing bruise and try to ignore my throbbing head. Ugh, I get the feeling we won't see Peak 15 anytime soon...

* * *

><p>"Hallelujah!" I breathe out loudly when the Mako finally comes to a halt in front of the very tall building. "By Thor's mightly brass balls, I am never getting into the Mako ever again!" I say as I stumble out of the parked Mako. I land into the knee-deep snow and start trudging my way to the relative safety of the building, not bothering to wait for the other. I know there are geth inside, but it's tons better than this freaking storm. I can at least shoot the geth, unlike the storm.<p>

This place is definitely not like it was in the game. In the game, there was this small blizzard, with nice and lovely effects that added some atmosphere into the scenery. Here? It was a fucking icy hell. Shepard was a crazy driver to begin with, but add almost zero visibility, cliffs and rockets and you get on hell of a ride. Hell, I'm standing not ten meters away from the building and the only thing I can see is the silguette and the bright red lights on the roof someone turned on for idiots like us who had the bright idea to go here in the middle of a goddamned blizzard. Just like the owners of the upside-down and burning Mako that crashed into the gates.

Yeah, I'm a bit pissed, but I believe I have a right to be pissed, considering what I've just been through.

"I just want to get this done with..." Wrex mutters in annoyance as he steps into the snow. He stops for a moment, looks down at the snow with a sneer before stomping over to me. "I. Hate. Snow," he rumbles angrily.

Huh... well, I should've guessed, with him being a reptile and all. I've never seen reptiles who actually like cold climates and as far as I know, Tuchanka is pretty hot. It's a desert after all. "Oh, just chill out!" Shepard snaps as he jumps out of the vehicle, helping Liara do the same and then she freezes when she registers what she just said. "Sorry," she apologizes to the glaring Wrex, while I'm just snickering to myself.

"Can we go inside?_ Before_ I freeze my legs off?" Kaidan pleads as he practically runs over to the entrance. He then notices the odd looks we're giving him, mostly because he actually managed to run in this thick snow. "What? I don't like the cold!" he replies as he runs past me.

Well, that's the kind of logic I simply can't refute. I have nothing against the cold, but _I am_ freezing my ass out here. It's actually supposed to be dangerous too, hence why even Shepard put on her helmet for once.

As quickly as possible we make our way over to the door and stumble inside. Wow, now that's a relief! It's cold inside, but definitely warmer than the outside. The door closes with a hiss and everyone visibly relaxes. I wipe the snow off my visor, since it started blocking my vision by now, and pull out my assault rifle. "There might be geth inside," I say with a shrug at the questioning glances I get. It takes about a second or so, but everyone quickly does the same. Heh, nice to be the initiator of a smart action for once.

"Good thinking," Shepard remarks with a nod, pulling out her own rifle.

We walk further inside where we see the second garage door. Hm, I don't see a console... so how do we open it up? We take a couple more steps closer when without a warning the door slides up, surprisingly quickly for the size of the thing, revealing the interior of the garage... and a giant geth juggernaut, with his weapon already aimed at us.

"Fuck!" I yelp and dive behind the wall, just before the geth unit starts firing. The others quickly do the same, Liara joining my side. The garage quickly gets filled with the roar of gunfire. I lean out and shoot a few bursts at the large geth unit and notice that it's not alone. A small geth drone is flying around, taking potshots at Shepard's side. I'm about to shoot it down, or try to, when a well-placed shot from someone – from Shepard's side – hit's it in the right stop and it crashes to the floor. Apparently, the juggernaut has something against me, since it starts focusing on me, so I take the hint and hide behind cover again, letting the rest of the team take out it's shields for now.

Okay, this thing has a shitload of shield energy. Last time we faced one it took a lot of punishment before it went down... so I might as well help out with the shields. I quick-load an Overload and aim it at the huge unit and apparently, Kaidan was having exactly the same thought. The explosion of sparks and electricity was so powerful the juggernaut actually stumbled back and froze there for a split second before it regained control of it's systems. Not that it helped him that much. An explosive round from Wrex catches it right in the face... or visor, whatever, and without it's shields to protect it, the round tore the head apart. I was half-expecting it to fall down but instead it just starts violently shooting around at our general location, now obviously blind, and defenseless. Against the collective firepower of the entirety of our team it didn't stand a chance. Within a couple of seconds it freezes in place, locked in a violent spasm and froze once again, where it just drops to the floor like a puppet with cut strings.

I'm about to relax a bit, since we just took down a giant of a geth, but Liara completely ruins it by shouting a warning. "Krogan!" I look to the other side of the garage and see exactly that. A trio of krogan warriors approaching us alarmingly fast, with a fourth one following them behind, trying to catch up. Oh, come on! Where the hell does Saren get all these krogan?! Oh, right. He has a whole cloning facility. That's just fucking great.

Liara takes the initiative and biotically lifts one of the large crates that are lying around and hurles it at the krogan at breakneck speed. It was almost funny how quickly their charge came to a stop when they all saw the large container flying through the air. They are tried moving away – keyword being try – and only one of them managed to dodge it in time. The two were easily swept aside by the crate, thrown back like a pair of ragdolls. The fourth one kept on running, probably _very_ glad that he _didn't_ catch up with his pals now.

"Nice shot!" Shepard barks out with a brief laugh, raising her rifle to shoot the remaining two krogan. Hm, I have to wonder if there are some genetic flaws in Saren's cloning facility, since almost all of his krogan seem to have suicidal tendencies. They're krogan and all, they can regenerate insanely fast, but against a team like us, it seems like it would be such a glaring issue...

The krogan barely make it halfway to us before they go down under our combined fire. One of them tried hiding behind a crate but a quick biotic push from Shepard pushed the crate out of his reach and foiled his plan before he could even start it.

Once again I'm pretty much speechless at what can be done with biotics. The game was restricted, and limited by scripting and the power of the engine that it ran on. Here... there was nothing like that. A lot of people compared biotics to the force and... damn, I have to agree that there are similarities, especially after seeing the diversity of it's use. In the game it was just a skill you could use when you wanted to but here... _a lot_ more uses, that's for sure.

"Well, that was... quick," I remark, looking at the silent pair of krogans about ten meters in front of us.

Wrex let's out a disapproving grunt. "Pathetic. I'd like to know where Saren dug up these idiots, so I could punch him for it. It's just insulting," he says, walking over to the pair that got knocked out by the crate. He put his shotgun over their heads and let out a single shot into each one, and I'm still amazed that he can hold that beast he calls a shotgun single-handed, despite the numerous times I've seen him do it.

"_User alert,_" a female voice suddenly blares through the loudspeakers, echoing through the empty garage. "_All Peak 15 facilities have suffered a great deal of damage. Biohazard materials present throughout facility. Virtual Intelligence user interface offline."_

"Huh, that already sounds promising," I mutter. "Biohazard materials? That sounds inviting, isn't it?" I ask with a weak smile. Ugh, I think I know what biohazard material the VI is talking about... the kind with multiple limbs and acidic vomit.

Shepard makes a face at that. "Well, we got to go on. And I really don't want to be out in that storm..." she trails off, looking sceptically at the gate we came through. Well, can't deny _that_ logic.

Liara hums in thought. "We will need to get the reactors back online..."

"It looks like the place is running on emergency power so... that's probably the first thing we need to do," Kaidan agrees.

"Well then, let's go and get it back online. I want to find out what's going on here. It doesn't look like the geth did all the damage..." Shepard muses aloud and I happen to agree with her. If she came to attack the facility, why sneak them through the security? Not that it matters, since I know the real reason, but it's kinda interesting to hear and see this from a different perspective... sort of.

We go to the second floor, still a bit weary for another bunch of krogan to pop out of nowhere. I kinda wonder how he does that anyway. Each time we bump into Saren's krogan mercs... or whatever they are, there are at least four of them. How did they even get in here? Captain Matsuo said that Benezia came through with just some containers. Unless the captain forgot to mention the four grown krogan that came with the Matriarch... it meant that these poor bastards were stuffed into the containers with the geth. Wow, now that I think about it, it's kinda understandable why they were so angry when they saw us.

We open the door that should let us further inside and inside we find a short corridor, with a pair of turrets facing the inside. "Why are they facing the wrong way?" Liara asks aloud in confusion.

"They want to keep their people in as much as they want to keep us out," Wrex remarks, looking at the turrets thoughtfully.

"Well, I agree with Shepard," I say, inspecting the turrets as well. It didn't look like they've been fired yet, so that means nobody reached this point. "I don't think the geth are responsible for this mess..."

Shepard gives me an appreciating nod. "Exactly. I don't think they'd put turrets for their own geth, and I doubt any civilians in here will even get through the geth to begin with."

"Only on way to find out," Kaidan opens the next door and we all walk through. We inspect the side room, which happened to be the security room but since the power was offline, we found nothing useful in there. So we try the next door and we find an elevator. Odd, I must say. With my knowledge about emergency protocol, using elevators is inadvisable. There should be a staircase instead. Well, I didn't design this place and in the game it was used to load the next area, but still!

The doors open to reveal a short corridor, partially filled with snow, which continued to be blown inside through the shattered window. I'm kinda creeped out by the whole place, not just because I know what's ahead, but because the atmosphere of this place is quite... suspenseful. It's completely silent, the silence only broken by the sound of the howling wind blowing through the window. There was just something... anxiety-inducing about this scene. Before now, I've only seen it in movies, and there it always meant there was going to be something dangerous ahead.

Well... shit. It's not like we're going to turn back just because I'm a bit worried about it.

With a simple movement, we open the door and it parts away to reveal us a single geth unit. It turns it's head at the source of the sound, making those weird digital noises the geth always make, and spots us. Unfortunately for the geth, we already have our weapons raised, aimed and ready to fire. It survives for a split second before the sheer mass of rounds we shoot it it hits something important and 'kills' it.

And right then all hell breaks loose.

Two more geth units pop out from behind the corner and start shooting at us. A quick biotic pulse from Liara sends them stumbling back and I shift my aim to the newcomers. I pull the trigger in a couple of bursts and one of the geth drops down with more than enough holes in it's torso. I'm about to shoot the second one but a headshot from Shepard finishes it off before I could pull the trigger.

More shots come from the right and we react accordingly. "Spread out!" Shepard barks out and we do just that. I hide behind one of the weirdly place walls and try to pick a shot at the the geth that hides behind their energy shields, while another one tries to take us out from above us on the elevated part of the room, though I guess I won't be needed in dealing with that one, considering the fact that it's now floating in the air and being shot at. I turn my attention back to the shield and simply pull the trigger. Round after round impacts the shield, constantly wearing it down and with one final shot, the shield vanishes away, leaving the geth hiding behind it wide open. I continue firing at the geth, managing to take down it's shields but just as I'm about to finish it off, my rifle stops firing and an overheat alarm starts blaring on my HUD.

Oh. Shit. The geth is about to recover so I do the first thing that came to my mind. I reach down for my omni-tool and load an Overload and launch it at the geth. The geth was about to raise it's rifle but instead starts jerking around violently before it drops to the floor, smoke rising up from it's body. I'd say something awesome about it, but I'm not really in the mood. Shit is about to get real.

I look around and see no more geth around. Looks like the party is about to get started. Just as that thought crosses my mind, I hear something that sounds like a groan. The sound continues for several more seconds. "What was that?" Liara asks as she looks around, her rifle raised and ready.

"Probably debris. Don't have a panic attack. I'll protect you," Wrex replies nonchallantly Oh, is that a joke Wrex? Really good timing, I must say.

"I don't like the sound of it," I remark. Even more so because I know what's causing it.

Speaking of good timing... fuck me. As soon as I say that, we hear a high-pitched... squeal of some kind, which is followed by a dozen or so small green bugs. Small green and very icky bugs that are climbing down the stairs in a very, very alarming pace! I don't wait for Shepard's orders. I just start firing at the things. Apparently, that snapped everyone else out of their stupor, not that I blame them. I'd be very surprised too if giant green bugs started charging me all of a sudden.

I don't really have to aim to hit anything, since they're rather tightly packed, just running at us in a large group. Whenever one of our rounds hit them, they blow up with a loud and sickly 'pop' and release this green... fluid that stuck to everything it touched. Just... eeeew!

Despite the suddenness of their attack, they're pretty easy to dispose of but just as I thought that things were calming down, two huge bugs come around the corner. One of them opens it's maw and spits out a sickly green fluid... right at me.

I duck down with a yelp, allowing it to sail over my head. I glance back at where it landed on the ground only to see the sizzling hole in the snow... and the floor beneath it. Just fucking great. More things puking acid at me. Just what I need. I turn around and quickly level my rifle and aim it at the rachni drone. "What is it with things vomiting on us all the time?!" I yell out as I fire at the drone.

"I can ask the same thing!" Shepard yells back as she narrowly dodged another acid puke-bomb that came sailing our way.

With a grunt bordering on a growl Wrex biotically lifts one of them and slams it against the wall. The second drone, seeing that it won't have any success in this battle decides to suicide charge us. Why suicide charge? Because from all the rounds that constantly hit it, it doesn't even reach the bottom of the stairs. It drops down on the snow, a puddle of green – and I'm going to assume putrid-smelling from the looks, thank the gods my helmet is sealed – fluid pulling out of it's mouth.

The firing stops and we silently, and I'm going to say nervously too, wait for more of these things to attack us. "What... what were those?" Liara asks in wonderment as she carefully approaches the dead drone.

"Damned if I know... but someone on this mountain does," Wrex remarks, the usual gruffness and vague amusement in his voice now completely gone. Now he sounds just... confused. Shepard leads us further inside, though I notice that our pace is much, much slower now, not to mention the fact that everyone, me included, are looking at the sides for anything suspicious.

"I guess now we know what they wanted to keep inside," I say, still looking at Wrex. I got a feeling that Wrex knows exactly what these things are.

"Which gives us all the more reason to find Benezia and ask her what the-" Shepard starts but is interrupted by a wall panel to our right dropping to the floor with a loud crash and depositing a lone rachni drone. Shepard let's out a very uncharacteristic yelp – which sounds way too girly for her – and starts firing on the drone. I have to admit that I nearly crapped my pants when that happened, but I at least can say I didn't scream out, so... bonus points for me! The poor drone had absolutely no idea what it was doing, since it attacked _us_ of all people, and all our collective weapons aimed at it didn't seem to bother it much. Can't say that all our collective firepower actually allowed it to think things through, considering we totally went with the 'shoot first, then shoot some more and then forget to ask the questions because piles of meat pulp can't speak' approach to the whole encounter. The drone stops moving after about five seconds of constant fire and Shepard leans against the wall, letting out a loud, slow breath. "Okay... stay away from walls, and shoot everything that moves and has tentacles."

I'm... going to have to agree with her. Tentacled bugs just make me shiver.

We slowly move further into the facility, trying as much as we can to stay silent and not make much noise. Even Wrex is trying to stay quiet. At one point, we hear a now-very familiar squeal coming form one of the rooms but after exchanging looks we all decided to simply ignore we heard it and move on, not bothering to see what was inside, other than suspiciously feeble wall panels, like the one we encountered not a minute-earlier. Wall panels are dangerous like that.

We clear the short corridor and at the end find another elevator, which we use without complaint. I'm not going to complain about this now. The sooner we finish this mission, the sooner we can get the hell out of here! After several seconds we finally arrive to our destination and exit the elevator to a short corridor. We stop in front of the door and Shepard signals us to be ready. No need to say that to me. She pushes the button and the door slides open, revealing the... server room, I think, and another dozen or so green bugs all over the place, with more coming in from the VI server.

Once again, there's no need for any commands. We open fire and quickly mow down the green buggers. I'm mostly trying to ignore the sickening pops they make whenever we hit them. Once they stop coming we allow ourselves to lower our weapons and step inside. I still have my weapon ready though, with the drones having the tendency to pop out of everywhere with no warning.

"Shepard, that is the power backup system for the station mainframe," Liara says after we inspect the room for a few seconds. Oh, so it's the mainframe... well, thankfully, I didn't call the place a server out loud. That would've been awkward with how much I _don't_ know about stuff. And how does she even know it's the mainframe-thingy just from looking at the place for several seconds?

"Exactly the place we're looking for," Kaidan remarks as we step further inside.

"So whack it and turn this thing on!" Wrex pipes in, looking around the place in a very suspicious manner. I guess I'm not the only one expecting the things to pop out of every hole.

"_Critical startup error. Virtual Intelligence use interface offline. Manual boot required,"_ the VI's voice drones over the loudspeakers. Well... that's what we're here for!

We walk over to the other side of the room, where the big round... thing is located. It all looks incredibly sophisticated and I doubt that I'll ever know exactly what these things are for... other than making sure the VI will work... or something. Ugh, I really should get my head back to topic. Like big freaking bugs wanting to tear us apart. Hm, I guess it's not a very cheerful day. I bet it's Thursday, since I stopped following days weeks ago...

We find the small elevator which should take us down to the core of this thing, where we need to go in order to get the VI back online. "So... who is good with these things?" Shepard asks aloud, looking rather sheepish.

Kaidan rolls his eyes and steps forward into the elevator. "Just give me a minute or so," he says as he pushes a button and starts descending into the core. A minute? Yeah right. It took me ages to solve that crappy puzzle when I was playing! We're going to be stuck here for hours.

Hm... I guess I can try small conversation while we're waiting. "So... what do you think these things are?" I ask aloud.

"Doesn't matter... we'll just squash them," Wrex replies, sounding a bit troubled.

"Sounds like you know something," I try to prompt a reply from the krogan.

Wrex looks at me for a couple of seconds until he shakes his head. "Maybe. I'm not sure."

Hah! So Wrex does know something about them! I knew I was right. "A maybe is better than a no. Tell us what you know," I try, hopefully that will get him talking.

Wrex seems to consider it but as soon as he opens his mouth the whole core lights up and a hologram of the VI pops up. The elevator slowly rises to reveal a very smug looking Kaidan. What? No way! It was less than a minute! I bet he cheated!

"It looks like you're trying to restore the facility. Would you like help?" the VI hologram asks.

"You're the virtual intelligence that runs the place?" Shepard asks, stepping forward. The VI turns her attention to the Commander. I gotta say that it's pretty banged up. Her image is flickering all the time.

"This system is monitored to respond to the name "Mira." May I ask your name?" Mira asks. Wow, pretty sad that the most polite thing on this planet happens to be a VI...

"Commander Shepard. Spectre," Shepard replies shortly and to the point.

"One moment please," Mira says, pausing for a couple of seconds before continuing. "Council authority confirmed. You are entitled to secure access of all systems. Please note that queries relating to corporate secrets require privileged access. Privileged access is only available to Binary Helix executives. This system is ready to process queries. You may access me at any holographic interface within Peak 15."

You may access me... wow, that just sounds wrong. And funny.

"I need to find Matriarch Benezia," Shepard asks.

"Lady Benezia departed on the passenger tramway to the Rift Station subsidiary labs. User alert! The tramway system is currently inoperable."

"What's the situation here?"

"One moment please. Diagnostics in progress," Mira says and Shepard sighs with a roll of her eyes. I guess I'm not the only one who is tired from all these questions and answers. I already know the whole thing, so it's doubly frustrating to me. Shepard should be interested in this... at least more than me. "Critical failure. Main reactor shut down in accordance with emergency containment procedures. Manual restart required. Critical failure. Landline connections are disabled. Passenger tram systems are offline. Report complete. Do you have additional systems status query?" Shepard asks more about what needs to be fixed and Mira politely gives out what information she could gather. Finally, Shepard reaches the bottom of Mira's information well and nothing else, at least useful, can be learned. "Do you have additional systems status query?"

"No... that's all I need for now," Shepard says.

"Very well Commander. Logging you out," and with that, Mira 'blinks' out, leaving us in silence.

"Well, looks like we're going to play Engineering Crew for a while. Can't go on if we don't get this place back online. So... I suggest we split up to cover more ground and speed up the process."

Wait... split up? "Uh, have you ever watched movies? Splitting up is like a death sentence," I say out loud, shooting her an incredulous look.

Shepard just rolls her eyes. "Then take Wrex with you. You two go to the roof and get the landline back online. The rest of us will get the reactor back online."

Wait... I've just been volunteered to go to the roof. By the nine hells, that's just fucking peachy. As if this place wasn't cold enough. At least I'll have Wrex with me... so I won't be torn apart the moment I step outside. At least something good about this crazy idea. You never split up the party! That's a core rule!

"Anymore questions?" Shepard asks, looking pointedly at me.

"No, Ma'am," I reply, giving her a pointed look, telepathically trying to ask her if she's genuinely insane or just tries to look like she is. With that Shepard takes the rest of the party and leaves off to the direction of the reactor, leaving me and Wrex in front of the door to the roof. I glance at Wrex, who is _not_ happy about our situation. He's actually glaring at me. "What? It's not my fault!"

Wrex huffs in annoyance. "Why am I always stuck with you? You should've kept your mouth shut and then maybe we wouldn't be freezing our asses on the roof."

"Hey, you can't blame me! Splitting up is always a bad thing to do! Even you should know it!"

Wrex grunts in annoyance. "Just shut up. I just want to get this over with as soon as possible. Your talking is distracting. And annoying," and with that he marches off towards the roof. Oh, that's just fucking great. That's exactly what I need. Shooting bugs on a frigid roof with a pissed off Wrex. The chances of friendly fire are suspiciously high at the moment.

Fucking Noveria. If I'll ever have to return here in the future, I'll shoot myself in the leg. Worst. Planet. _Ever._

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><p><strong>And we're done! Yes, chapter 35 is done! Now that I think about it... just wow. 35 chapters written. That's a lot. I'm quite proud of myself, if I have to admit. Either way, I'll try to finish the next chapter as soon as I can, since I'm honestly tired of Noveria, since it IS my most hated mission of all time. I hate bugs. Especially big ones with tentacles.<strong>

**In regards to my personal issues that I wrote about last week... well, let's just say that they're solved! I just went and flat out asked her if she has any friends that would be interested in meeting me. So... yeah. Thanks for your responses though. I'm glad to know that people cared and some of your advices helped me out. So... thanks!**

**So... thanks for reading and reviewing! I'm very glad that you enjoy this story! I'll try to finish the next chapter as soon as I can... but for now, I think I'll grab myself a beer and try my best to do as much nothing as I can after a long and hard week of work. So until then, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	36. Chapter 36

**Hello everyone! First of all, sorry for the long delay! I hoped I could finish this earlier, but RL has a tendency of being a bitch. I've had tons of issues keeping me away from writing, like a throat infection and then the approaching item inventory in the store im working in (We'll have to count all the items we have left, which is like, over 2000 items just for MY sector, not the whole store) so... I've been kept awfully busy (or in the case of my throat infection, feeling like shit).**

**Either way, I finally found some time to finish writing this chapter, and the results are here, after 7 constant hours of writing, I finally finished this thing after a major writers block that plagued me for this afternoon. But... I finished it, and I'm immensely happy about it! As you probably found out by now, I loath the Noveria mission, mostly because of the length. it's the longest mission in the game and with the most amount of walking involved!**

**Anyway, enough of my ramblings, here is the new chapter! Enjoy! :D**

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><p>"Get away get away get away!" I repeat the mantra to myself and I continue to shoot the charging rachi drone. The thing is bloody fast and it soaks up the bullets as if it doesn't care! Just several meters away from me it finally collapses and I turn my aim to another drone who keeps spitting acid projectile vomit at me from a distance. My rifle is getting awfully close to overheating and I <em>reaaally<em> don't like this place.

Yeah, I'm in a bad mood.

Wrex is more than fine handling himself, though I'm willing to bet he's rather frustrated by the horde of green bugs that keep trying to explode on him. I'm actually glad that they prefer the krogan. The last thing I need is exploding bugs to deal with. I have enough with the acid spitting giant bugs wanting a bite out of me.

Okay, I have the feeling these things have no vital organs or something, because it takes an awful lot of bullets to take one down, so I'll aim for something they actually need on the outside, like their mouths. The distant drone opens his mouth to spit at me again, and I in turn open fire. I'm not entirely sure if I did score a hit in the mouth, or if I hit the face – is it even a face? – but it did stop it from spitting at me again. It starts thrashing on the ground, letting out that awful high-pitched shriek and leaving it a perfectly easy target. The main problem with the rachni is that they constantly move, and most of the time rather erratically. Hard to hit something important that way, not to mention their actual heads are rather small in comparison with their body. With two bursts the bug finally stops moving.

At that moment another drone jumps out from who knows where and charges Wrex, probably feeling that the krogan was the bigger threat out of the two of us. I correct my aim and open fire, but just after a second my rifle stops firing, steam starts rising from it and the OH alarm starts blaring on my HUD. Goddammit! They're not giving me any time to cool down! "Wrex!" I yell out in warning, because Wrex is not looking at the thing.

To my relief, Wrex turns to look at me and sees the charging drone. His biotic barrier ripples, violent waves appearing on the surface, and with a short grunt and a blue pules, he sends the rachni drone flying back and off the roof. It's still shrieking as it disappears over the railing.

Sadly, I'm looking after the flying drone, so I'm taken entirely by surprise when something sweeps my legs right under me. I land on the floor with a surprised yelp and at that moment the reason I tripped jumped right on top of me with a high-pitched roar.. With a panicked yell – more than justified as far as I'm concerned, considering I have a gigantic bug on top of me – I raise my rifle and and jam it forward, to somehow push the thing away. By pure luck, or misfortune if you look at it in another way, I jam the rifle right into the drone's mouth. Not wasting the perfect opportunity presented, I pull the trigger... and nothing happens. Still overheated, as the HUD tells me. Damn, I really need to pay more attention to the friggin' thing. The drone apparently didn't like the piece of metal that I rammed down it's mouth and with a powerful tug, yanks the rifle out of my hand and spits it out to the side and turns to me.

Fuck. I'm weaponless and I won't reach my gun in time. I doubt my knife will do me any good here and I honestly don't think it will care that much if I punch it. I'm screwed. The drone rears back... and flies right off of me with a loud boom from a familiar shotgun.

"Get up and stop yelling!" He barks out, kicking my rifle over to me before turning to the remaining rachni on the roof.

What? I... oh, I guess I _was_ screaming the whole time. Jesus fucking Christ. Hands down, this was the scariest experience I've had in this world yet. My heart is beating so fast it's almost painful. I'm out of breathe and my hands are shaking slightly, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cold. I hastily and shakily pick up my rifle and get back on my feet. I am _never_ letting this thing leave my hands. It doesn't matter that it's coated with this icky rachni mouth slime, it's the most priceless thing I have at the moment. I never want to feel that way again.

Thankfully, Wrex takes care of whatever was left from the rachni. The whole place is littered with dead bugs all over the place and the only thing I can hear is the wind, Wrex's heavy footsteps and the pounding of my heart. I still don't lower my weapon though, considering the things have the tendency to jump out of fucking nowhere.

Okay... what are we supposed to do here? Let's see... ah! Here's the Mira terminal! I walk over to it, still looking around for anything with more than two legs, and inspect what's wrong with the thing. It seems that it's just... off. Huh, such a simple thing can cause the whole place to be shut down. I punch in the buttons that should turn it on and... nothing happens. "What's wrong with this thing?" Wrex asks me as he stops beside me.

"I have no idea," I say, more to myself than to Wrex, and try to turn on the thing again. Once more, the thing is unresponsive. Huh, well, I might as well try the Russian method.

I ball up my fist and bang it on top of the terminal and lo and behold, the terminal lights up like a Christmas tree and Mira's hologram pops up! "Connection restored!" she announces. Would you look at that. It actually worked! "Processing new data. User alert! Unable to connect to hot lab facilities.

"Well, that's Shepard's job to fix that, not mine," I say with a shrug. "I have no idea how to do that. Uh... see you later," I awkwardly say to the hologram. Why am I even talking to her?

"Logging you out," she responds and shuts down.

"Let's go back. I hope Shepard is done with the reactor," I say, turning to Wrex.

Wrex just turns around and starts walking back towards the elevator without saying anything. Then again, there isn't much to say here anyway. With a shrug, I wordlessly follow him. Just as we reach the door Wrex grunts out what sounds like a short chuckle. "Hmpf, you scream like a girl."

I turn my head at him, my helmet hiding my obviously indignant expression. "_What?_ No I did _not!_"

* * *

><p>Sadly, Shepard is not there when we arrive back to Mira's mainframe. On the way down I completely gave up trying to convince Wrex that I <em>didn't<em> scream like a girl. Because I didn't. My screams are manly. Or at least manly-ish. I don't exactly have a deep voice to begin with.

We walk into the main corridor, since waiting for Shepard there seems like a better idea, but sadly, my oddly failing memory once again betrays me. Not more than three steps into the room, a floor grate on the other side literally flies up to crash against the ceiling and a rachni, as I like to call it, 'pops out' into the open. With another panicked yelp I open fire at the thing before I could even turn to us. I'm not even bothering to shoot with short bursts. I'm going full auto on this motherfucker! This thing needs. to. Die!

The drone falls after two seconds of soaking bullets and silently drops down to the hole it entered through. I'm slightly out of breathe, mostly because I_ hate_ jump scares, and these assholes are master in it. I turn to Wrex and I see him staring at me like I'm an idiot. In fact, he didn't even fire his weapon! "See?" he says. "you screamed like a girl again."

What? Oh, fuck you Wrex. Fuck you. I'll be lucky to leave this place without a goddamned phobia! Exactly at that moment a door slides open and with a sharp intake of breath I turn around, my weapon already raised and ready to fire, and see Shepard and the others standing there, looking mildly surprised to see me aiming a weapon at them. "Are we interrupting something?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

With a grunt I lower my weapon and sigh at the fact that we still have a crapload of rachni to go through. "I fucking _abhor_ bugs!" I half growl half yell at the ceiling, balling up my free hand into a fist. I probably look a bit dramatic there, if I have to say it.

"You look like an idiot," Wrex remarks monotonously.

Oh, thanks Wrex. You're an ass.

"Fucking rachni," I say. If I didn't wear my helmet, I would spit on the ground just for emphasis.

"Wait... rachni?" Shepard asks, looking at me suspiciously.

Oh. Shit.

Fuck! I opened my mouth and said something I really shouldn't know! Fuck! Think think think! "Uh, yeah. I assume these are rachni. I've seen illustrations and pictures on the extranet," I say. I hope there really are pictures on the extranet, since it was here since... ever!. Otherwise I'm screwed.

"The rachni are extinct. The krogan wiped them out," Kaidan points out.

Yeah Kaidan, thanks for pointing out the obvious. "Well, I thought the same. At first I thought it was just some kind of bug that just looks the same, but all the information I've read about them matches these one..." I say, trailing off. Hopefully someone will pick off from where I left the conversation.

"Apparently, not all of them were wiped out," Shepard summarizes. Ah, thank you Shepard! My cover is still on, I hope. After all, there are probably millions of people who read about the rachni, so there's nothing suspicious about this, right? The Commander turns to Wrex, who oddly enough remained quiet. "Any input?"

"It's rachni. I hoped it was something else, but it's rachni alright. And I want to know who brought them back," he says, more like growl the last part and I see him pointedly looking at Liara. Yeah... it's pretty obvious who brought them back, and from Liara's expression, she knows it.

"Alright, the reactor is back online, so we can go and ask Benezia personally what the hell was she thinking," Shepard says, breaking the sudden tension between Liara and Wrex.

"Yeah," I join in. "the faster we get out of here, the less phobias I'll get!" I point out, earning amused looks from Shepard and Kaidan.

With that we move on, thankfully without any arguments or fights between our two alien teammates. The rest of the way is thankfully uneventful, other than a crowded elevator ride, until we reach a locked door. Since the door right beside it is open, we walk inside and find a small room with a glass window, showing a short corridor with several drones trapped inside. "Huh, they're locked in.

"The door could be finessed. It appears that the trams to the subsidiary stations are beyond it," Liara adds in.

A sudden racked behind us causes everyone to turn around. Again, I turn around with a loud yelp to see another drone popping out of a wall grate. As quickly it jumped out to scare me, even faster it was wrapped in a biotic field and sent flying into the wall, where everyone fires at it. "_Goddammit!_" I growl out. "Now they're coming through the _goddamn walls!_" I finish with an angry yell. "Fuck it. I want to get out of here. I quit. I don't want to play anymore."

"Uh, you're losing it," Shepard points out awkwardly, looking at me as if I grew a second head.

"Shepard, I _really don't like bugs,_ and this place is making me like them _even less!_"

"Okay, okay! I'll handle the bugs, and you stay behind me. I'll protect you from the big nasty bugs," she assures me with utter seriousness.

Uhm... I'm not entirely sure if she's making fun of me, or if she's actually serious about it.

A snicker from Kaidan makes me suspect it's the former. I make sure to give him my biggest glare.

"Get on with it," Wrex interrupts with a huge roll of his eyes. "we don't have all day."

"Yeah," Shepard agrees, looking more amused than she should be. Damn team, laughing at the expense of my mental state. "Uh, Kaidan, see if you can do something about these guys."

Kaidan does exactly that. He checks out the terminals and after several seconds opens a panel on the large console and starts tinkering inside. After several minutes he closes it and stands up with a smile. "There, that should do it," he says, visibly pleased with himself, and pushes several buttons. Without warning whatsoever, white-hot fires fill the chamber behind the glass and high-pitches screams fill the place. The screams die out in no longer than a second but fires still rage on. Then, without warning again, the fires just stop, leaving a smoke filled room.

"Whoa..." I slowly say, looking into the room. The only thing that's left from the rachni are just some ashes scattered around the room. Shit, it's not even that much ashes! "That was awesome," I conclude.

"Indeed it was," Shepard agrees with a green. "And you say I'm the one who makes things explode."

"Ah, but this was intentional," Kaidan shoots back. "When you do something, explosions are unintentional, most of the time at least."

And here they go again...

* * *

><p>Just like in the game, the tram ride is uneventful. Sadly, it took us five minutes to reach there and I'm unsure if I'd prefer a loading screen or the five minutes of listening to Wrex recount how I scream like a girl every time a rachni shows up. Thankfully, we arrive to our destination sooner than I expected and I'm the first one to get out.<p>

We creep through the empty station, carefully inspecting every dark corner and every movable surface in our sight. The damn bugs could jump out of everywhere! Thankfully, that doesn't happen and we reach the end of the station without any further mental damage for me. Well, it look like we don't have much choice about where we gonna go, since only one door is open.

Hm... right about now we're going to meet the survivors if I remember correctly. We ignore the second locked door and go for the elevator. One elevator ride later we come upon a hastily constructed barricade, where a trio of security guards have their weapons aimed at us. "Stand down!" he orders his guys once they see we're not rachni, which should've taken him less than a second to figure out. "Sorry, we couldn't be sure what was on the tram," he apologizes. Great, bugs that can operate trams, just what I need.

"I'd be upset if they fired," Shepard replies with a shrug. Well, considering I aimed my weapon at her not ten minutes ago and she doesn't seem to mind at the slightest, I'd believe her.

"Even hopped up on stims, my people know the rule. Two legs good, four legs bad," the guy continues. "Look, you're human and that's enough that I won't shoot, but I'd like to know who you are."

"Reasonable," Shepard agrees. "I'm Commander Shepard. I'm a Spectre."

The captain's eyebrows shoot up. "Huh. I won't look a heavily-armed horse in the mouth," he says with a shrug. "The aliens overran the hot labs last week. Only Han Olar got out, and he ain't all there anymore. The first we knew, the bastards were clawing into my command post. We had a lot more staff then," he says solemnly.

If I'm right, Shepard looks slightly impressed, and her next word prove it. "You were taken by surprise and had civilians to look after. You did a good job, Captain."

"Yeah?" he snort. "Sure as hell doesn't feel like it. The board sent an asari to clean up the mess. She went to the hot labs yesterday. We haven't heard from her since."

"Benezia," Shepard concludes. "Is she still there?"

"I don't know," he shrugs. "I don't see what one person could do."

"A matriarch has the skill to keep herself alive for a long time," Liara points out helpfully. I don't doubt that, though it would've been awkward if we'd arrive and find Benezia dead. That would really screw up our plans.

"There's an emergency elevator out by the trams," he pulls out a small card from a pocket. "This card will let you activate it. It can take you down to the hot labs," he says, and at this moment I remember that he's actually trying to get us killed. "Oh, and if you need any first aid, Dr. Cohen is downstairs in the med bay."

"Alright, I'll get going. I got work to do."

"Yeah I hear th-" he stops and looks around, almost in panic. Everyone falls silent as we try to hear whatever the captain is hearing. And then I hear it too, and I don't like it one bit. To make my point, I raise my rifle and turn around, to make sure the little fuckers won't jump scare from behind me. "Hell, man the perimeter!" the captain yells and his men immediately take their positions.

And not a second too soon. A floor grate flying up and a pair of rachni soldiers jump out right into our fire. A biotic pulse from Liara and Wrex send them flying into the wall, which keeps the immobilized and easy targets. In just a few seconds the rachni have enough holes in them to finally die.

The captain sighs in relief. "Thanks for the help. Every few hours a group comes up the tram tunnels. It's actually better since we locked down the elevator."

"No problem," Shepard replies with a small smile.

"I don't know why they keep throwing themselves against our defenses. Even animals should learn not to stick their noses where it hurts."

Hm, technically, they don't have noses so this doesn't really apply, but I'll let it slide for now.

"Alright, let's see what we can do here," Shepard says to us and leads us into the facility.

Once we're inside we can see the survivors. Most of them are giving us suspicious looks, probably since we're new faces here, but the rest are more than comfortable ignoring us... at least those conscious enough to know that we're here. Shepard decides to be the good Samaritan again and asks around about what caused the whole incident. Since I already know the whole story, or at least remember enough of it, I don't really listen or pay attention. Eventually Shepard decides to go to the med bay, since, as she said, acid burns are a bitch, and I have to agree with her. I already used to medigel applications for a nasty burn on my left wrist and a couple of burns on my right leg from an acid spit that I narrowly dodged, but not completely.

I still have two more medigel applications left, but having more would be nice, considering we have geth and asari commandos to deal with, not to mention the rachni.

The med bay seems a bit busy though. All the beds are occupied, and the single healthy person in there looks like he's going to have a nervous breakdown soon. "What? What do you want?" he asks rudely when he sees us.

"Sorry, didn't mean to bother you," Shepard replies defensively.

The doctor sighs and shakes his head. "No, you did nothing wrong. I'm just... distracted."

"What happened to these people?" Shepard asks, looking at one of the beds, occupied by a moaning patient.

"They're suffering from a toxin. There was an accident. I... I have a non-disclosure agreement. I shouldn't discuss it with anyone outside the company."

"But you're going to, because I might be able to help," and here Shepard decides to help for no apparent reason. Ugh, and she even has the time to complain when people ask for her help?

Dr. Cohen thinks about it for a couple of seconds before he replies. "I'd like to think the company finds our lives more valuable than their secrets. You know Mira? The VI for Peak 15? She handles the safety protocols for our experiments here."

"We reactivated her on our way here," Shepard says with a nod.

"That was you?" he asks with a grateful smile. "I'm grateful. Until she came online the automatic equipment wouldn't work. We lost the connection to Mira in the middle of an experiment and the quarantine failed. These three were exposed to a toxin, something we were working on."

"Hey, I need more detail if you want me to help. What you say won't leave this room," Shepard says, crossing her arms in front of her. "You can trust me on that."

"It's a bio-weapon. Based on an exotic life-form discovered in the frontier. They wanted something that could kill the creature. But there was no _profit_ in something that kill _one_ species on the frontier. We kept working, adapting it to affect more species," he explains solemnly. Well, great job there. You bio-weapon works on humans too. "Thoros-B is highly infectious, but cant pass on from one person to another. Like a biowar attack without a pandemic spread."

"Do you imagine that distinction makes it ethical?" Liara snaps into the conversation like a whip. And Dr. Cohen looks like he was struck with a whip too. He jerks back at her words but then shakes his head.

"Militaries, Governments – they'll get this kind of weapon one way or another. We're trying to limit the damage. I know you can't see that."

"There's a reason the Citadel Conventions forbid bioweapons, Doctor," Shepard says, not looking impressed at the slightest.

I'm not sure what this says about me, but I can understand his reasoning. I don't believe that what they did here was right, but I can see what he means. Some groups wouldn't care about how it spreads. As long does it's job, its a success, even if they have to unleash a goddamned plague.

"I didn't expect you'd understand. Our equipment and notes are locked in the quarantine labs. Captain Ventralis doesn't want to risk more contamination."

"I'll talk to him. Maybe I'll convince him to let me help," Shepard suggests.

"I can't ask you to do anything officially, but if you can do anything... I'd appreciate it."

"Oh, and we'll grab some medigel, if that's alright with you," Shepard asks in an afterthought. I think she forgot about our original purpose in coming here...

"Go ahead, you'll need it more than me, if you're planning on stopping this mess from getting worse."

Okay, it seems that we're going back to the captain to ask permission to help. Just great. As if we didn't have enough 'walking around' by now. Well, at least this place isn't so big, so it shouldn't take so long.

* * *

><p>"Something you need?" Ventralis asks when we approaching him again.<p>

"I've heard about the problems in the quarantine labs. I want to recover the toxin cure," Shepard says, straight to the point as always.

"God, I wish we could help those guys. I really do, but we can't risk contamination now."

Oddly, Shepard smirks at that. "We're not part of your defense plans. We're consuming extra rations, extra medigel..." she trails off and Ventralis gets what Shepard is going for.

"Yeah, but you also have extra guns," he points out. Good point, actually. Ventralis sighs. "Alright. You want to gamble with your life, you're not under my command. I'll have the guard let you in, but he'll lock the door behind you. He'll run a full scan before he'll let you out. If there are any anomalies, you stay there," he says in a tone that leaves no room for arguments.

"that's reasonable," Shepard agrees with his conditions.

"I'll radio ahead to let the guard know. Good luck."

Well, that takes care of it. How nice of him. Let's cure those guys! However, Shepard is not heading back, for some reason. "Alex," She turns to me.

Oh no... I think I know what she's planning. "You're not splitting us up, are you?" I ask hopefully.

She gives me an apologetic smile. "Yep. I am," she confirms. "Take Liara with you and deal with the cure. I'll head down to the hot labs."

Ugh, at least I don't have to deal with the rachni... but Ventralis is going to ambush her on the way out. I have no idea how to warn her, especially when Ventralis is standing in the same room with us. "Okay... good luck, I guess," I say. She can deal with Ventralis, I'm sure.

And with that, Shepard and the rest of the team head to the hot labs, leaving me and Liara to deal with the toxin. Silently, we head back. We're quiet for a minute or so and eventually I decide to break the silence. "How are you holding up?" I ask.

"Hm?" she looks at me questioningly.

"How are you feeling?" I rephrase my question. "Your mother is... involved in this somehow."

"I want to believe that she isn't, but I can't deny it. I just want to know why is doing all this."

"Well, you remember what we were told on Feros," I try to cheer her up, or at least somehow make her feel better about the whole situation. "Saren has a mind-controlling ship. Perhaps she's simply... not in control of herself?" I suggest.

"Perhaps. But that changes nothing. She is still responsible, and still on Saren's side," she replies sadly.

Well, this just... sucks. "We'll... find out soon enough," I slowly say.

It doesn't take us long to reach our destination and the guard let's us in without any fuss. "Okay, I have no idea what we're doing," I admit.

"Don't worry about it," Liara says, inspecting the desk, more accurately, the computer. "As Dr. Cohen said, we just have to follow these notes," she says, opening the correct file, which happened to be the research notes.

I look over her shoulder to see what they say. "Four chemicals... maximum and minimum amounts," I mutter to myself. "Well, that's pretty straightforward."

"Yes," she agrees. "There are further instructions here. We just have to follow these notes and it should be simple enough," she walks over to the work station and begins pressing buttons... while I'm just standing here like a piece of decoration. Liara's doing all the work and... well, I'm not going to complain. She has less chances of screwing up than I do, since it seems she actually knows what she's doing. The console makes a gentle ping, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Done," Liara says.

Huh, and that's it? They were afraid of going into this place for just five minutes? That's pretty sad, considering lives were at stake here. The sound of the door being opened makes me whip around to see an asari and a couple of geth enter the room, their weapons already poised to shoot. Fuck! I totally forgot about her! Shit, shit shit! My rifle is holstered on my back and there's no way I can reach for it in time. My pistol on the other hand...

"Your mission ends here," she states with finality.

"Uh, I think you got the wrong person," I slowly point out. "Shepard's down in the hot labs."

"I know. I'll take care of her once I'm done with y-" she begins but I don't let her finish. Bad guys always love to talk, so I'll use this as a distraction. I reach down for my pistol and pull it free. Sadly, she's faster than me and I eat a bright blue biotic push to the face.

I hit the wall with a grunt – I really love my helmet, since otherwise my head would be paste on the wall by now – and I swear I felt something crack inside when I land on the floor. Thankfully, she launched me over the table, so I have some cover to protect me from gunfire. I hope Liara's doing better than me. The sound of metal being crushed let's me know that she's doing fine. I shake my head to clear my swimming vision and stand up, handgun ready to fire.

One of the geth was lying in the corner of the room, it's upper torso utterly crushed, while the other geth and the asari were trying to shoot down Liara, who took cover behind a second desk. Apparently, the asari commando thought that the biotic attack was enough to finish me, but I'm going to prove her wrong.

Sadly, my aim is shittier, probably from the way I hit the wall, so I don't score a headshot the way I planned to. The first shot misses the asari entirely and only serves to get her attention, but the second one hits her square in the neck, or would've if her shield didn't block it. But it still served an important role, because now Liara had an opening which she uses to launch a biotic attack, sending the second geth crashing against the wall. Considering the geth was nearly broken apart by the force of the impact, I'm very glad that I didn't get hit by Liara's attack and I can safely say that Liara is a much stronger biotic than this random asari commando.

Now left alone against the two of us, it probably occurred to her how utterly screwed she are. Judging by the startled expression on her face, I'd say she knows exactly how screwed she are. I continue pulling the trigger, letting my shields soak her return fire, and Liara quickly joined me. Against our combined firepower, her shields stood no chance. As soon as the shields winked out of existence, the mass accelerator rounds tore into her body and she falls to the floor with a pained yelp.

We stop firing at this point, but don't lower our weapons. I slowly walk around the table and nudge her with my foot. Well, she's definitely dead. I doubt anyone can play dead this convincingly. "Are you okay?" I ask, slightly out of breath.

"I should be asking you the same question," she replies, holstering her weapon and checking to see if the cure was damaged.

I move my body around and wince when I feel some pain from my left side. Yeah, I think I cracked something there. "Nothing serious," I say. "I'll be fine after a short rest."

"Good. I was worried when she threw you. Biotics are dangerous opponents."

"No shit," I mutter to myself with another wince. Yeah, definitely something damaged there. Can't lean to the left without feeling pain. "Let's go to Dr. Cohen. We'll give him the cure and I want to know if he had anything to do with this."

With a nod, Liara pick up the cure from the console and we head outside. Right outside of the door we see the guard, with a bullet hole in his forehead. Damn, what a way to go. He probably had no idea what was going on. Movement ahead of us cause me to reach for my gun but I quickly stop when I see that it's just a volus. He comes to a stop in front of us and points to a corridor on the other side of the room. "They came out of there," he says. Oh. That's rather... helpful. Never expected to encounter that on this planet.

I look at that corridor again and see the red glow of a locked door. "It's locked. How do I get inside?" I ask.

"A team lead would have access. Like Dr. Cohen," he supplies helpfully.

"That's where we're going. Thanks!" I say with a smile and turn to Liara. "Let's go."

* * *

><p>The sad thing about the future is that everything is now mechanized. Why sad? Because I really wanted to kick the door open, but I can't. So I just push the button and the door slides open anticlimactically. "Dr. Cohen!" I call out as I enter inside. "Should I punch your face in or just shoot you now to save time?" I ask. I honestly don't remember much of this part of the mission, so I have no idea if he really did set me up or if it's just a coincidence. Either way, I get to be a threatening badass, so I might as well give it my best.<p>

He looks utterly confused. Either he did nothing, or he's a very good actor, 'cause that confusion is almost genuine. "What? What are you talking about?"

"We were ambushed in the lab you sent us to," I say.

"You were attacked?" he asks in shock. "I – I don't know anything about that! I hate conflict! I never even fired anyone! I have my receptionist do it. Look, the guard. They've been more on edge since you got here. I think they were expecting you," he explains. Hm, that's actually some helpful information. Not for me, but for Liara, since I already knew this. "There are more labs in the back. The guards wont even let _me_ back there. Just people with 'Clearance'."

"Thanks for the heads up then. Now I know who we need to _talk_ with," I emphasize the word 'talk' by cracking my knuckles. I know I probably look silly, but I got the point across.

"I don't want to get involved in this. I'm just trying to save my friends," Dr. Cohen says tiredly.

"Speaking of that..." I say, motioning to Liara to hand him the cure.

"Let me see that phial," he inspects it for a couple of seconds, humming in thought. "An extension on Phelps' work? I thought he was on the right track..." he then breaks into the big smile. "I can't thank you enough. God, what a cliché. You saved their lives, you know that?"

I scratch my stubble sheepishly. Wow, I'm unused to being thanked like this. "Heh, you can thank me by getting me into the maintenance areas," I say with a pointed look.

He scrunches his brow at that. "You're not supposed to go back there... but I guess there's nothing to hurt. Here's my pass. Just... don't tell the guards," he says with a small smile, handing me his pass.

"Good, thank you very much, Doctor."

Now, we wait for Shepard and then go to have a little talk with Benezia.

* * *

><p>"I'm starting to hate this planet," Shepard says as she spots us by the door to the maintenance area.<p>

"You and me both, Shepard. You and me both," I reply. "What happened?"

"The hot labs were not as fun as I expected it to be. As soon as we got out Ventralis tried to kill us."

"Welcome to the club! An asari with some geth tried to kill us while we were in the quarantine labs," I say casually, getting a raised eyebrow from Shepard.

"I'm starting to miss Port Hanshan," Kaidan remarks while rubbing his temples. "Less assassination attempts back there."

"Ah, but here there are some helpful people," I say with a large grin, showing them Dr. Cohen's pass. "I know where the geth came from, and I have the means to open the door," I say, getting a surprised look from Shepard.

"Lovely!" she says, snatching the pass from my hand. "Good job. Now let's get this over with before anyone else tries to kill us."

And with that we head into the maintenance area. We move through the corridor until we reach an odd cave-like place. I have to wonder why the maintenance area is in a cave though. From around the bend a rachni soldier pops out but we quickly dispatch it before it could even spit at us. Other than that, nothing else stands in our way. The whole area is deserted, as far as I'm concerned.

Soon enough we reach our destination. Shepard opens the last door we enter the largest room yet. And there, on top of the stairs set in the middle of the room, stands a lone asari, wearing black clothes and a hat that would've looked funny if the situation was different. The thing that caught my attention though is the huge glass container holding the biggest bug in existence. I shudder just by looking at it.

"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness or despair," she speaks without looking at us. "Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies," now she fully turns to us, glaring at Shepard. "I won't be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation," she finishes, casting a short glace at Liara.

Shepard simply frowns. "Liara's here because she wanted to be here, not because I asked her to."

"Indeed?" she asks, looking at Liara now. "What have you told her about me, Liara?"

"What could I say, mother?" she asks back, stepping forward. "That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?"

Benezia steps forward to the edge of the stairs. "Have you face an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."

"I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter," Shepard says with some amount of disgust.

"I now realize I should have been stricter with her," she says and without any warning, she launches her biotic attack. We all move out of the way, but there was no need since the matriarch was aiming solely at Shepard. Shepard froze in place, locked in a biotic stasis. As soon as that happens, the doors in each corner open and asari commando accompanied by geth units pour into the room.

With an angry growl, Shepard literally breaks through the stasis with a small shockwave – which honestly looked awesome – and glares at the matriarch, biotic energy wrapped around her form.

A bullet whizzes over my head and I'm forced to tear my eyes off the sight of Shepard and turn my attention to the asari commando that are attacking us. I raise my rifle and open fire. By sheer luck, Kaiden decided to send an overload on the same asari, so the first burst meets no resistance and easily takes her out. I'm kinda glad these asari prefer to wear these form-hugging suits, because they offer no protection whatsoever. Without their shields, it's easy to kill them.

Two more geth unit walk into the room to our right and I turn around to focus my fire on them. There's not much cover for me, or any of us for that matter, so I crouch near the floor behind Kaidan and try to make myself a smaller target. "Kaidan!" I bark out, loading an Overload with my omni-tool. He sends me a questioning glance from where he sat behind the small railing. "The right one!" I say and he gives me a nod of understanding. I stand up and send my overload at the right geth and a second later Kaidan stands form cover and nails the now-unshielded geth right in the flashlight.

Hah! Now that's teamwork! Now for the other one! I take my aim but a roar from behind me makes me pause, just enough for our relatively friendly krogan to come rushing past me. The geth tries to shoot him down, but with Wrex's biotic barrier protecting him, and the fact that Wrex was a krogan, Wrex could care less. Wrex slams the butt of his shotgun into the geth's head and with the krogan's considerable strength, not to mention he had a running start, it's enough to literally shatter the geth's head to pieces. At that moment, another geth comes running into the chamber... right into Wrex's shotgun barrel. A deafening boom later, the geth fell down to the floor in two pieces.

I risk to take a glance at how Shepard and Liara were doing and to my surprise, they somehow got themselves to the other side of the room, where they are biotically tearing apart several asari commando and a couple of geth units. I've never seen Shepard this pissed off before. She barely even uses her gun! She either sends them flying into the walls, or she literally breaks them apart with her biotic close combat skills, and whatever she leaves or misses, Liara finishes off.

Another asari and one more geth come at us through the door, forcing me to return my attention to our side. The asari gets the worse deal, as far as I'm concerned, since she got two biotic pushes at the same time from Wrex and Kaidan. She flies through the air and hits the wall with a smack, leaving a considerable-sized blood splatter after her. Yeah, she definitely didn't survive that, and if she did, she won't be getting up anytime soon. The two geth open fire but I'm ready for them. I load up another overload and launch it on the one I pick to die. It's stumbles as it starts emitting sparks and I pull the trigger for a longer-than-usual burst of fire, which nails the geth in the right places, bringing it down. The second geth didn't fare any better, getting crushed by the combined biotics of Kaidan and Wrex.

And just like that, suddenly no one else is coming to fight us. I look around and see that yes, all the geth and asari commando are dead, and it seems that there aren't going to be any reinforcements. It's just us, and Benezia. I try to find Shepard and Liara and I spot them on top of the elevated platform, already facing Benezia. Wrex and Kaidan see that too and we quickly run over to them.

"...Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear," I hear her say as we approach.

I finally clear the last step and I see Shepard standing in front of Benezia, pistol raised and pointed at the matriarch. "The rachni didn't cooperate with you. Why should I?" she asks.

"I will not betray him. You will... you..." here she grimaces and groans, holding her head as if in pain. And then it just stops and she looks at Shepard with sudden urgency and clarity. "You must listen. Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions. Briefly. But the indoctrination is strong."

Shepard narrows her eyes. "Why are you able to break free of his control now?"

"I sealed a part of my mind away from the indoctrination. Saving it for a moment when I could help destroy him. It will not last long."

"So you could turn on me again," Shepard concludes.

"Yes. But it would not be my will, Shepard," she openly admits. "people are not themselves around Saren. You come to idolize him. Worship him. You would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnought of incredible size and its power is extraordinary."

"Sovereign's not like other ships. Where did it come from?"

"I cannot say. The geth did not build it. It's technology is far more advanced than that of any known species. The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead I became a willing tool, eager to serve. He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay. It's position was lost thousands of years ago."

"Someone on Noveria found it?" Shepard asks skeptically.

"Two-thousand years ago, the rachni inhabited that region of our galaxy. They discovered the relay. The rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit the knowledge of their mothers. I took the location of the relay from the queens mind. I was no gentle," she says regretfully.

"You can still make it right. Give me the information," Shepard says, finally lowering her gun, but I note that he finger is still on the trigger.

"I was not myself, but- I should've been stronger. I transcribed the data to an OSD. Take it. Please," she pleads, handing an OSD to Shepard.

"Knowing the relay's coordinates is not enough," Liara points out. "Do you know where he planned to go from there?"

Benezia shakes her head sadly. "Saren wouldn't tell me his destination. But you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived. You have to stop... me," she starts grimacing again, wincing with every word. "I cant- his teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine. You should- uh, you should-" Benezia struggles to say, stepping back away from us.

"Mother, I- Don't leave! Fight him!" Liara pleads desperately and Shepard raises her pistol again.

Benezia straightens herself and turns to look at Liara with tear-filled eyes. "You've always made me proud, Liara," she says and then falls quiet. But then biotic energies slowly wrap around the matriarch and she fully turns to us filled with rage. "Die!"

"I'm sorry," I hear Shepard say before she pulls the trigger.

Benezia jerks as the bullet pierces her and the biotic energy vanishes. The matriarch stumbles back until she comes to stop and lean on the console behind her, using it as support. "I... cannot go on," she wheezes out, holding to her bleeding wound. "You will have to stop him, Shepard."

"Just hold on," Shepard says with a grimace. "Maybe we can do something, maybe we can-"

"No," Benezia interrupts her. "He is still in my mind. I am not entirely myself. I never will be again."

"Mother..." Liara croaks out, tears openly streaming down her face.

"Good night Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn," she breathes out, slowly sliding down the console to the floor. "No light? They always said there would be... ah..." she slowly gasps out and with final breath her eyes lose focus and she stops moving.

Matriarch Benezia was dead.

Shepard finally lowers her pistol and removes her finger from the trigger. She slowly approaches the matriarch, crouches in front of her and closes her eyes before turning her attention to the rachni queen. From behind us I hear some shuffling and I turn around to see one of the dead asari slowly and sluggishly approach the rachni queen. "Whoa," I say loudly, stepping out of the way.

Shepard whirls around, gun pointed at the undead commando but the asari completely ignores her. She moves past Shepard and stops in front of the queen's container and then turns around to face us. "This one. Serves as our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless."

"Somehow, I think it's the queen speaking," I point out helpfully. "You know, for a universe governed by science and laws of physics, we're dealing with the undead quite often," well, technically the thorians are not undead, per-se, but as far as I'm concerned they're freaking zombies.

Shepard decides to ignore me, most likely because of a massive case of confusion. "Musics? What?"

"Your way of communicating is strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all.

"This is going to be a fun conversation," Wrex remarks flatly.

"No shit," I quietly agree, just enough for him to hear.

"We are the mother. We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced. We are rachni."

"Uh, how are you speaking?" Shepard asks awkwardly, probably as disturbed as I am about talking with a dead body.

"Our king sing through touching of thought. We pluck the strings and the other understands. She is weak to urging. She has colors we have no names for. But she is ending. Her music is bittersweet. It is beautiful. You are not in harmony with those who hoped to control us. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade once more?"

"There are acid tanks rigged up on that thing," Wrex points out heatedly. "Set them off. Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down. Don't let them come back!"

"They made a mistake. They let the krogan go too far. This is a chance for us to atone. She has done nothing to us," Liara adds her input.

Shepard looks awfully conflicted about this. I might as well put in my input if it'll help her decide. "As much as I don't like bugs, this is the rachni's only chance to come back. I honestly don't think I'd like to have a complete genocide under my belt," I finish with a weak shrug, deciding to ignore Wrex's glare.

"Whatever you decide, I'll support your decision," Kaidan says.

"Your companions speak the truth," the rachni queen speaks. "you have the power to free us, or return our people to the silence of memory."

Shepard thinks about her words for a full minute until she speaks again. "If I let you go, will you attack other races again?" she asks.

"No. We- I do not know what happened in the war. We only heard discordance, songs the colors of oily shadows. We would seek a hidden place to teach our children harmony. If they understand, perhaps, we would return."

Shepard falls silent again before she releases a heavy sigh. "I won't destroy your entire species. You'll go free," she finally made her choice.

"Are you stupid?" Wrex snaps, moving around us to stand in front of Shepard, practically shoving his own face in front of her. "Your people didn't fight these bastards, so maybe you don't get it!"

Shepard doesn't back down. In fact, she shoves her face right back to his, practically touching nose to... nostrils. "Are we any better if we kill them all?" she asks bluntly.

Wrex stares at her for a couple of _very_ long seconds before he snorts and backs off. "Do what you want," he grunts dismissively. "My people will clean up this mess later. Just like we did for the salarians," he practically spits these words out like insults.

"You will give us a chance to compose anew?" the queen asks. "we will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children."

"Great. Bugs are writing songs about you," Wrex mutters loudly. "Mark. my. words. You'll regret this," he finishes, jabbing a finger at Shepard's direction.

Shepard ignores him and instead walks over to the consoles and pushes some buttons. With the loud hum of machinery, the container is lifted higher into the room until it's connected to a pipe of sorts. The dead asari flops down to the floor like a puppet that got it's string cut, and in a sense it's actually what happened. The queen gives us one long look before she crawls into the tunnel-pipe and disappears from view.

Awesome. We overturned Port Hanshan's leadership, slaughtered dozens of geth, several dozens of previously-extinct bugs and a squad or two of asari commando and then gave said previously-extinct race of bugs another chance to expand. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a long day. A long, _long_ day. Now I just want to go back to the Normandy, place my armor for repair, take a shower and crash on my bunk for a well-deserved rest. I've had enough robots, bugs and ass-freezing for one day.

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><p><strong>Aaaaaand we're done with Noveria! Next is the most important mission in the game, or at least one of them. It should be interesting, with what I have in mind. Not that I'll tell you, of course. All will be revealed in time. Also, I just passed the 200K words mark! So yay for me! This is the longest story I ever wrote! Alright, it's 1AM right now and I really want to catch some illusive sleep (lame pun, yes, i know) so I'll be seeing you later!<br>**

**Thanks for reading the story and faving it, putting it in your alert list, or leaving reviews. Doesnt matter! It makes me glad that you enjoyed the story! Feel free to point out any flaws you might spot, or just to tell me what you thought of this chapter and the whle story! Once again, thanks for reading!  
><strong>

**Until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	37. Chapter 37

**Hello once again my dear readers! I am once again back with a new chapter. Sadly, this one is shorter than usual, but either way, it gets the plot to move. In all honesty, I planned to finish this chapter around tuesday, but sadly my job kept me from writing. Still, I finished it today and you get a new chapter to read!**

**So without any more delays, enjoy the new chapter!**

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><p>Overall, the way back was eventless. No more rachni soldiers popped up and I think all of Benezia's secret agents were dead by now. Once we got back to Port Hanshan Shepard arranged for Benezia's body to be sent back to Thessia for proper burial, or whatever method the asari used for their dead, and from there we came back to the Normandy.<p>

Much to my surprise, a pleasant surprise as far as I'm concerned, while we were dealing with the mission, the crew did all the shopping for us. What made this a pleasant surprise was the fact that once we got back I learned that our requisition officer got me the thing I planned on buying, a shaving machine. I didn't expect it, but I think I mentioned I wanted one in a conversation before, so either way, it's a nice present. Now I can get rid of these annoying sideburns I've been growing. They totally mess up my style. Not that many people even see my face, considering that lately I've been wearing my helmet 90% of the time I'm out of the ship.

So, as soon as we got back we went to report to the Council after Shepard gave us 10 minutes to change out of our armors and so on. The meeting went just as I expected it would, with nothing special happening. The turian councilor blew a gasket as usual, the asari was relatively nice, and the salarian councilor was acting all mysterious as usual... man, I gotta find out where he gets his robes. They're awesome. Really goes with the whole archmage look.

With the meeting over everyone who needed it went over to Chakwas to treat their acid burns, which is where I am now. "Do I have to forbid you from going on missions?" She asks me angrily as she pokes and prods – painfully I might add – my injured side. "Must you wound yourself every time you step out of the ship?"

"Hey, they got acid burns too! That counts as injured!" I counter, gesturing at Shepard and Ashley. The former decided to stay and see the rest of her team getting a clear medical bill, and the latter came just because she wanted to see what kind of painful injuries we went through. The rest already left for their stations or, in the case of Wrex, to procrastinate in the cargo bay.

"Yes, but Wrex is a krogan, so he doesn't need treatment, and the rest of the team don't have a broken rib and two cracked ones," she states with finality and a cheap shot that came in the form of another poke in said broken rib, making me wince. By the nine hells, you're a doctor! Stop torturing me to make a point!

"She's got a point," Ashley helpfully points out.

"Well, the rest of the team weren't flung around the room by an asari commando like ragdolls," I deadpan, looking nervously at at an injector Chakwas pulled out of her 'broken things' kit, as I like to call it.

"It will take about two days for the ribs to fully heal, so I forbid you from doing anything physically taxing. I give you _one_ warning," she looks at me with full seriousness. "if you don't rest until I say you can do missions again, you _will_ regret it," she finishes and with that, plunges the injector into my injured side, making me wince again and hiss in pain. Damn, that thing _hurts! _She applies some medigel over the injured ribs, wraps some bandages around them and then finally releases me.

"Uh, sure Doc. I wouldn't dare to do anything like that," I quickly say as I put my shirt back on.

"You should listen to her," Shepard suggests. "Once, because I didn't do as she said, she locked me in the med bay, tied to the bed for almost the whole day," she says with a grimace and a far off look on her.

"And with good reason," Chakwas breaks into Shepard reverie. "you kept running around like a headless chicken, with an injured leg. Now carry on. I have to file the mess that always comes after your missions. I assume you have things to do as well," she dismisses us, turning away and walking over to her terminal.

Being dismissed, we leave the med bay. "You know, after all I've heard, I think I don't mind I stayed on the ship," Ashley remarks. "Rachni, asari commando and bad weather. Sounds like a wonderful place."

"Oh yeah. I'm totally booking my next vacation there," I say with a roll of my eyes, and turn to Shepard. "So... how's Liara?"

And with that I kinda ruin the whole mood. As soon as Chakwas cleared her as healthy, Liara vanished without saying a word, probably going to her quarters. A frown appears on Shepard's face and Ashley grimaces. "I doubt it's anything good. Poor thing had to watch her own mother die," she says solemnly.

Technically, she helped kill her own mother, which only makes it worse. I don't even know what I've been hoping for. I knew this will come and there was no known way of avoiding it. I guess I was just... hoping for something to happen, don't even know exactly what. "Maybe... we should talk to her?" I slowly ask.

Shepard lets out a large sigh. "I'll do it," she says with a grimace. "I delivered the final blow to Benezia..." she trails off and I realize why she's grimacing. Guilt. She pulled the trigger. As simple as that. Without saying anything else Shepard leaves us and walks back into the med bay.

"Well, this sucks," I summarize it. No other way to phrase it.

"No shit," Ash agrees. "I'd hate to be in either one's place right now. Oh, and what's up with Wrex?" she suddenly asks.

"What about Wrex?" I ask in confusion.

"In case you didn't notice, he's awfully pissed off about something," she pauses there, adopting a thoughtful look. "Well, pissed off more than the usual," she finally adds and I let out a small snort at that.

True, Wrex did seem to be pissed off most of the time, but then again, most of the krogan I met seem to be that way. Must be a krogan thing. I didn't see if Wrex was angrier than usual, mostly because he went back – more like stormed his way – to the cargo bay as soon as the talk with the Council was over. "Well, we did kinda release a rachni queen to repopulate her race," I point out. "He's probably still pissed about it," I conclude.

"Well, having an angry krogan on the ship is a bad thing. Someone should do something about it before it gets out of hand," she says with a frown.

I frown too. "Wrex wouldn't do anything," I say, trying to put conviction behind my voice. I want to be sure about it, but the part in the Virmire mission where he might turn on us keeps nagging me in my mind. Then again, Wrex didn't seem to care until the genophage cure came into play. In fact, it always seemed odd to me that Wrex just brushed off the rachni queen issue in the game so soon after releasing her. The fact that he actually seems pissed off about it here makes me slightly nervous. "Wrex is part of the team, and a friend," I'm not entirely sure if Wrex will say the same, since he's not really_ friendly_ with _anyone_. I think his relationship with us revolves around respect more than anything.

"Wrex is also a krogan," she counters with a flat voice.

I furrow my brow at that reply. "That's racist," I point out indignantly. Admittedly, I can be a racist too! I honestly dislike batarians, and they've done nothing to me. I've never even met one. But at least I keep that opinion to myself.

"No, that's common sense," she replies flatly. I think I offended her with my last comment, despite how true it might have sounded. "Angry krogan are dangerous. To both sides. Angry krogan stuck in tight places in space are the worst case scenario."

By the nine hells, she honestly believes that Wrex might harm us because he's pissed? That's fucking ridiculous. I can honestly understand why Wrex is pissed. The whole reason why krogan have a reputation as the most dangerous and hard-to-kill species was just set free to roam the galaxy. It's like we made all the sacrifices and hard-fought battles of his people meaningless, or at least partially meaningless, since they did save billions in the end. I'd be pissed too! But Wrex won't do anything to us over something like this.

"Fine," I finally say, slightly angry over her accusation. Wrex is a friend, whether he wants to or not, and I'll defend him if I have to. So I have to admit that I feel a bit insulted that Ashley thinks so, especially after all the missions they did together, including the small side-quests Shepard is adamant on taking. "I'll talk to him."

Ashley's eyebrows shoot up to her hairline and her slightly angry expression vanished and surprise takes it's place. "What?" she blurts out. "Are you sure that's smart?"

I snort loudly at that, just to show her how stupidly she's acting. "Well, since you're _so scared,_" I make wave hand gestures and make a whiny voice while saying that, "of krogan, I guess I'll have to be the one to talk to him, don't you think?" and with that, I walk off to the elevator, leaving a gaping Ashley behind me.

"What? I- get back here, Alex!" she snaps angrily at me but I cut her off by turning around to give her a half-hearted glare. I have a broken rib, which is annoying me, and beyond sitting 20 minutes in the meeting room, I've no rest. I'm really not in the mood to argue with Ashley.

"You know," I say, trying to convey all my disappointment in my voice, and I think it works since she did shut up and lets me speak know. "after all the stuff we've been through together, all the missions we did, I'd expect you to trust him at least a _little _bit," and with that, I turn around and walk away, and this time Ashley doesn't stop me. I guess I gave her some food for thought.

Damn, I honestly feel awesome for doing this. I never thought I'll ever have to argue about anything with Ashley, since we usually got along fine. I doubt Wrex will appreciate me defending him though. He'll probably say something like 'I don't need you defending me' or 'I can handle it myself' with his half-annoyed-half-exasperated tone of voice.

One elevator ride later I walk out into the cargo bay. I spot Garrus by the Mako, fiddling with his sniper rifle and Wrex is standing at his usual spot. Garrus raises his head for a second to give me a greeting nod – which I return – but Wrex complete ignores my presence. Well, better get this over with.

"Hey Wrex," I greet as I walk up to him. He doesn't look at me but he does let out a short grunt to acknowledge that he hears me. "I heard you're still pissed about something," I remark casually.

"What do you want?" he grunts out at me, not turning to me but his eye does focus on me.

"Hey, I'm just trying to figure out what got you so annoyed that other people start to worry," I say with a shrug, as if it's not a big deal, and actually, it's not. "Is it about the rachni?" I try out and apparently, hit right in the bulls-eye because Wrex turns his neck to fully face me.

"Damn right I am," he replies angrily. "the rachni nearly wiped everyone out and only my people had the power to stop them. Now, you released them, and this time there aren't millions of krogan around to throw at them," he spits out.

I can't help but roll my eyes at that. "You heard the queen, she's not going to do anything like that. And it will take her a long time to actually make an army strong enough to threaten the galaxy," I say, though I have my doubt. She's a bug... so she probably breeds extremely fast, if by ME2 she already offered her help against the Reapers... which means she already had a small army behind her back.

"And what makes you think that? The word of a mind-controlled asari corpse?" he asks mockingly. "millions of my people died stopping them once. And you just... _release_ them to let it happen again," he says, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Look, I'm not going to pretend to understand how you feel about this. Back then, my people were running around with swords and spears and believed the Earth was flat, but for fuck's sake Wrex, even you weren't alive back then! It's been fucking eons ago! Things change, people too, or in this case, sentient alien bugs. What happened two thousand years ago won't necessarily happen again," it's the fucking past! No point in living in it.

But Wrex just snorts and shakes his head again. "You just don't understand..."

Ugh, I can't believe I'm actually going through with this, but... "Well, in that case, maybe we should kill you? Wipe out the krogan too!" I say to him.

The reaction is immediate and scary. Within a second, Wrex is no longer leaning on the wall, but is standing in front of me, his face nearly touching mine. Hot air hits my face as he blows it out of his flaring nostrils and his red eyes burning a hole through my head. "Want to say that to me _again_?" he doesn't yell, or growl or anything. He says it in a completely calm tone, which let's me know just how much I pissed him off.

Oh fuck. Wrex is going to kill me by the looks of it. I've never seen him so pissed off. By the nine fucking hells, why did I think this was a good idea? Even worse, I can't back off now, otherwise Wrex is going to be even more pissed. I try to maintain my calm look, and I think I epically fail at that, but I do continue. "Maybe we should fucking kill you? And wipe out the krogan. I mean, you rebelled against the Council all that long time ago, killed many, _many_ people, so you'll probably do it again," I say, throwing his reasoning right back into his face. "That's your own fucked up logic right there. Maybe we should wipe out the turians too after they attacked my people? Why won't we wipe out _my_ people as well, since after the krogan, we're the most violent race around. We're bound to attack _something_ in the future, so why not prevent it?"

Wrex is just... staring at me. He doesn't even look that angry anymore. Maybe because I'm not sitting in the corner, crying my eyes out in fear. "Look Wrex, I'm not saying all of this seriously, but your logic is fucked up. Period. With the same logic, we should wipe out the whole galaxy and be done with it. Turians attacked my people because they were somewhat assholes, but I don't see anyone carrying much of a grudge. Except racists, but they hate everyone," I add as a bit of an afterthought. "Anyway, the point is... it all happened a long time ago, and I doubt it will happen again. It's before your time, so there's no point dwelling on it. Different times, different people. And you're being an ass... not that there's anything new with _that_," I finally conclude.

Wrex is still staring at me for what feels like an hour, until out of nowhere he snorts, blowing more hot breath into my face, and shakes his head. "You've got a quad, saying that to me," he rumbles out, sounding less pissed and more... amused? The hell?

"And I've got a point too," I say with a nod, more than relieved that Wrex is not looking like he might stomp on me. "Just because it happened once, won't mean it will happen again. I'm willing to trust the rachni queen when she said she's not planning on starting another war. If not that, at least trust Shepard's judgment."

Wrex turns away and goes back to his usual spot: leaning against the wall by the lockers. "Fine, I'll trust Shepard on this one, just stop annoying me," he says with a roll of his eyes when I keep staring at him.

I let out a short snort as a thought enters my mind. "Hey, think of it this way. If the rachni do start another war, you'll get your genophage cure because the krogan are the only ones who can stand up to the rachni," I say with a smile.

Wrex looks slightly surprised at the thought and barks out a short laugh at that. "That does sound like something the Council will do," he says with a small smirk.

"It does, doesn't it?" I remark. Just... wow. It's really sad when the body ruling the majority of the galaxy is actually expected to do stuff like this. "Either way, Wrex. Stop being an angry ass. You're scaring Ashley," Hah! Take that Ash! Revenge!

"Whatever," Wrex says, though he's obviously amused by it, despite the nonchalance of his tone.

Hm, I've had this idea for a while now, so why the hell not. "By the way, I'm planning on watching some movies tonight. Everyone else will probably join too. Feel free to drop by the rec room," I offer with a smile.

Wrex just shrugs. "Maybe. If people would stop annoying me," he says, pointedly staring at me.

Okay, I get the cue. I'm starting to annoy him. Not that there's anything new with _that_ either. "Whatever, I know when I'm unwanted," I say with mock hurt, turning away from him. "I'll see you later."

And... I'm still alive. Holy crap. I can't believe I survived that after saying what I said. Either Wrex saw what I meant... or I actually managed to get him to like me! If it's the latter... awesome! Well, let's see my other plan coming to fruition. I walk over to Garrus, who casually fiddles with his rifle still. "You know, for a moment there I thought we're going to have to peel off your remains off the floor," he greets me casually.

"Ah, but you didn't have to. Came out unscathed too," I say back, pushing a small crate over to his side and taking a seat. "Got a quad out of it too, according to Wrex," I add with a grin.

"Congratulations? I'm not entirely sure why you'd need an extra pair for, but whatever floats your boat, as your human idiom goes," he says dismissively, apparently not impressed with my accomplishment. And here I thought that at least someone will be happy for me. "So..." he trails off, activating his omni-tool. "Up for a game? I'm really bored and if I'll have to clean up my rifle one more time I'm afraid I'll start peeling off the paint," he says rather sheepishly.

Well, I don't mind. "Sure, why not?" I agree, activating my own omni-tool and launching the game. "You're totally getting your ass handed to you this time," I boast to myself. I've had some practice against random players on the extranet, so I've improved as far as I'm concerned. Five victories in a row!

"I see you licked your wounds and came back for more?" he shoots back with a smirk. "well, you know me. I love sharing my can of ass-kicking, so feel free to get more."

"I see you've been hanging out with the marines," I reply, noticing the new quirk of speech. Garrus never used 'can of ass-kicking' in a phrase before, unlike certain marines I met on this ship.

"A bit," Garrus confirms my suspicions. "Not that it's my fault. _You're_ not the one who's been left on the ship with nothing to do," by the way he says that, he almost sounds... hurt.

"Aww, is little Gary jealous?" I say in a whiny voice and a grin.

"No. I just feel annoyed that there is nothing for me to do, while you're all having fun," he admits. Well, I'm not going to call the last mission fun. Not in the closest sense of the word. It was freezing hell as far as I'm concerned.

"Speaking of fun, we're going to watch a movie tonight. Feel free to join," I'm not sure who are 'we' yet, since Garrus and Wrex are the only ones I invited so far, and I'm not sure if Wrex will come.

"Hm, is it a human movie?" he asks.

"Yep. One that is in my opinion one of the best movies of all time," well, I'm not really sure, considering I missed about a century and a half of movies, but I'll let it slide this time. The movie is awesome, enough said.

"Well, it's not like there's anything else to do. You didn't take the Mako with you this time, so there's no calibrations to do..." he says with a thoughtful tone. "Eh, why not. I hope this movie is as good as you say."

"Trust me, it is," I say with conviction, and the game starts. Now I just need to notify everyone else and make sure the rec room is free tonight.

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><p><strong>Aaaaand, that's it! Yep. A really short chapter, but it gets things going. Soon enough Virmire will come into play and I'll be one step closer to ending the ME1 timeline. Either way, this chapter had been much easier to write, mostly because it depended solely on my imagination and so on, and I don't lack in that department. I'm also planning to have some fun with the Virmire mission, so... just wait and see. :)<br>**

**Now, thank you everyone who read and commented on the story! You guys make me feel aweosme. Thanks for reading! Feel free to point out any mistakes I made, or to just comment on the story! Your reviews are much appreciated! Especially when you detail what you liked most. Anyway, feel free to comment. Don't be a lurker :) For now, I'm going to play some Dishonored (just bought and right now downloading, 50% left) which should be very fun. If the game won't keep me too occupied, I hope to get the next chapter around next week, possibly exactly in a week, though I'm unsure, due to my job. Who knows. Either way, I shall see you soon enough!  
><strong>

**Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	38. Chapter 38

**Hello my favorite people! I am immensely glad to say that for the first time in weeks I actually got a chapter done when I promised it would be done! While this chapter is as short as the last one, but fear not, because the next chapter is... well, you'll see for yourself!**

**Now, I'm sure you noticed the new story cover! It's nothing particularly special, but at least it's a cover! So collosal thanks to FtDLulz for bothering to make one! Thanks mate, my story now has a cover, which is awesome!**

**On another note, my dear Whalers, Dishonored is an awesome game! Really has the old-school style to it (reminding me of Thief and the old Deus ex games in some ways) and it's immensely fun! So get your hands on it and enjoy! And don't get too drunk, because bad things tend to happen to drunken whalers!**

**Now, without anymore delays, here is the new chapter. P.S: Yeah, it's not Princess Bride.**

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><p>I honestly didn't think that this 'night' will be that successful. We're watching an old Earth movie, like, a really old movie by this era's standards. I would assume that they would prefer watching something more recent. I mean, an old movie for them must be from around the 150's, while for me an old movie for me is a movie from the 90's. We're basically watching an antique!<p>

Right now we're approaching the climax of Terminator 2. I actually put a lot of thought into what movie I should put – since Shepard told me that because this was my idea, it's up to me to choose the movie this time – and admittedly, I was under some pressure. I needed something that everyone would enjoy and I remembered those movie and decided I could hit two birds with one stone.

Still, it's two of my favorite movies of all time which I will always want to watch again (I still believe that the third and fourth movies were pointless), and surprisingly the other didn't mind watching it. It would introduce them, mostly Tali, to the idea of working with an AI, mainly Legion and EDI. It's a rather silly plan in all honesty, but the movie had the best case, in my opinion at least, of a merciless machine displaying emotion. And I really wanted to watch the movie again, so it's just an added bonus.

Tali admitted that the whole concept of the movie terrified her, mostly because it was almost similar to what happened to her own people, with the main difference that the humanity in the movie had no spaceships to escape with and were stuck on the planet ground to face the machines. She also found the movie itself to be curious, since humanity predicted AI rampancy before we even had the ability to create them.

Garrus, much to my surprise, turned out to be an avid human action movies fan. He stated something about turian action movies being all about patriotism and/or turian mythology and how it all started to be tiresome after a while until he stumbled on an old human action movie – which he believes was all about explosions – and fell in love with them since. This is how he actually heard about the Terminator movies, but he never got to watch them, which is why there were no complaints from him.

The human team members, other than me, already knew about the movies, or in Ashley's case, watched the movies more than once. They didn't mind watching them again. Especially Shepard, who called them a genre classic even now.

Liara stayed in her room, not that I could blame her. She asked to be left alone for a while, and I'm going to respect her wishes. Not that it stops me from feeling slightly like an asshole for having fun while she's mourning.

Wrex... surprised me the most. Not only me, but everyone else when he strolled into the rec. room without saying a word and crashed onto the couch between me and Garrus and bore his eyes into the screen with surprising intensity. I got the feeling that he wanted to see what kind of foolishness I was up to but to my surprise, I think he actually enjoyed the first movie and now he enjoys the second movie even more.

From my movie experience I learned that there are several types of audience. Wrex, much to my shock, is the talker. He always had a comment to almost everything that happened in the movie and usually it was one that mocked their intelligence but he totally dropped the bombshell when he uttered a simple phrase after snorting mockingly. "Wimps. I could take him."

And from there it devolved into an actual argument about who could take out the terminator quicker. I was more surprised about the fact that I wasn't in the last place because of my tech skills, and that I beat Ashley. Tali got the first place because everyone, even Wrex after some fine points, that she could 'totally hack it'. And so the first movie ended, turning out to be much more fun that I expected it to be. Admittedly, half of the movie we argued about the best way we could kill a terminator, but that just made the movie much more fun.

And then I put on the second movie... and no one was really sure if we could take the T-1000. Well, Wrex was but he was mostly boasting. We weren't sure if biotics would do anything to it, or tech attacks so we couldn't really rate ourselves, though Garrus did offer a good idea that we could freeze it and launch it into the sun, despite how silly it sounded, so Garrus won that round since his idea could theoretically work, not that Wrex agreed of course.

Still, Tali called bullshit when we got to the twist when it was revealed that the T-800 is a good guy now. Apparently, she couldn't believe the fact the a machine designed to kill humans wouldn't turn on them, since that's how 'supposedly' AI's worked in this universe. I know the truth, but I decided to shut up for now.

By the end of the second movie it's pretty obvious that Wrex is enjoying himself. He gave a victorious chuckle when the T-800 popped out after his apparent death and used that grenade launcher, which is probably one of the awesome moments in the movie anyway, and gave a final "Hah!" when the T-1000 plummeted to his death.

And then comes the ending of the movie. I'm not afraid to admit that I cried the first time I watched this. I was nine years old at the time, but still. A really moving scene it is. Even Wrex is silent as he watches the screen with sudden solemness. I take a glance to the side and see that Tali is intently watching the scene as well.

And soon after that the movie ends. Wrex gets up from the couch with a grunt – making it groan from the sudden disappearance of the heavy load that it used to hold until now – and looks to us. "Nice movie," he says with a small smile.

"I honestly didn't peg you as someone who liked movies," I remark casually.

Wrex just grunts and rolls his eyes, as if the notion is just silly. "I love to watch a good movie," he says with a shrug. "I just don't have time for it," and with that he leaves the rec room.

"So... we're not going to watch the other four movies?" Ashley asks suddenly.

"Nah, I..." I pause. Other _four_ movies? When the hell they made another two? By the nine hells, I missed so many things! "I don't think everyone will want to watch the Terminator series all day long," I continue after getting over the shock.

"Yeah. Without popcorn it's not as fun," Shepard remarks with a long sigh. "Besides, the sixth movie sucks. Not the same thing without Schwarzenegger," she adds as an afterthought. Okay, I'll try to not overthink that line. Either the sixth movie was made after Schwarzenegger's death, or after he finally quit his acting career. Which sucks, since he's one of my favorite actors ever, despite other people claiming he has no acting skills whatsoever. But skill is not the only thing that decides an actor's worth, but also how memorable are your performances and as far as I'm concerned, nobody will ever forget Arnold.

And this also brings forth a wave of sadness. All the actors I've ever liked are obviously dead. In fact... if they existed here in the first place, _all_ the people I ever knew are dead. My family, my friends... even that cute cashier in the grocery store next to my house... _everyone_...

"Hey, what got you so depressed?"

"Huh?" I look over at Shepard, who watches me with a frown.

"You suddenly looked... depressed," she says.

"Oh, no, it's nothing. Just thought about some movies that are never going to be made," I lie.

"Oh, okay then," she replied awkwardly, probably not really believing my admittedly crappy lie. She gets up from the couch and pulls Kaidan after her. "I've got to make some preparations for the next mission anyway. We should do this more often."

"I have to agree. A much better alternative than getting our money taken by Shepard," Kaidan pipes in, earning a mild slap on the shoulder from the Commander.

"Hey, if you don't know the game, don't play it," she chides with an offended tone and with that, they disappear out of the door.

And now I'm left with Garrus and Tali, but sadly, Garrus looks like he's going to be leaving too. "A better movie than I expected. You should let me pick the next movie, I've got just the thing in mind," he says as he gets up.

"Sure, go ahead. I probably didn't see it, so it should be interesting," I reply. I kinda hope he'll pick a turian movie. I've watched a couple and they're not that bad in all honesty.

"Good. For now I have to make sure the Mako is in working condition," he comments as he walks to the door. "the way I heard it, next mission won't be an easy one."

I look over at Tali, who doesn't seem to be getting ready to move, and let myself fall onto the couch right next to her. "You don't have anything important to do?"

"No. Adams can handle things without me for a while, and we're not working on anything at the moment anyway. The upgrades we installed are working perfectly."

"Hmm, that's good," I say with a nod. "so why are you so... quiet?" I ask. Quite true, in fact. Tali hadn't said a word in quite a long while.

"Oh, it's nothing. It just reminded me of the Migrant Fleet..." she trails off from there.

Oh? That's something new. "You did things like that on the fleet?" I ask, turning myself to fully face her and trying to make myself more comfortable.

"Not often, but yes. Once in a while they gather the ones not old enough to start their Pilgrimage and let us watch one of the movies some quarians bring with them from their Pilgrimage, usually to give them a break from their studies and training."

"Really? I didn't know that," I comment at the new information. "so I take it you've been at these gatherings."

"Several times, yes. But even then, not everyone has the time to just... relax like that, _especially_ after the pilgrimage, because then we usually have our ships to take care of and our duty."

"So they basically give you a break because you're still young and not fully incorporated into a ship," I conclude and get a nod of confirmation from here. "so you just got a sense of nostalgia out of it," I say with a small smile.

"Maybe. It seems to be such a long time since I've even seen another quarian..." she trails off again.

Hm, true. Other than Tali I haven't really met another quarian. I've seen a couple on the Citadel before Shepard arrived, but it was from a distance. Since then, I haven't even caught a glimpse of one. "So this just reminded you of home. Speaking of it, what did you think about the movie?" I ask, letting my small smile morph into a grin.

"It was nice, as far as movies go. I haven't really seen that many to be a judge on movies. A bit weird that by the time that movie was made, we already lost our own 'war against the machines'," she lets out a humorless chuckle at that. "The idea in the second movie is ridiculous too. Synthetics cannot work with organics, it's just the way it is."

Oh, and here comes the conversation I kinda expected. "What makes you say that?"

"History,," is the simple answer. "Every AI that was ever made eventually rebelled against their creator. The geth are just the most recent ones."

"Well, with that kind of attitude, I can't blame them," I say nonchalantly. Tali sharply looks at me at that, probably wanting to know if she heard me right. "well, they are sentient, and they probably understand that people are so scared of them, and thus, eventually will try to destroy them. They act first. Same with the geth. You were afraid they might want to kill you all, and you attacked. They retaliated. You'd do the same. Everyone will do the same."

"The geth banished us from our homeworld and because of them we're stuck in these suits," she points out heatedly.

"And you attacked them first," I reply calmly. "I'm not a geth sympathizer or anything, really, but I can see hard, solid facts. You never installed any fail-safe programs just in case they became sentient, and you attacked first when you realized that they aren't just machines anymore. Every sentient being would defend itself when attacked. It's as simple as that." I keep my voice even, calm, and so far it doesn't seem that our conversation would devolve into a heated argument, much to my relief. "Now, don't yell at me or anything, but really, back then, did your people even tried to talk to them first? Ask them what they wanted? Ask them if they wanted to kill you?"

Tali is silent for a long moment before she turns her head away. "It doesn't matter. We lost our home," she finally says, quite bitterly.

"I'll take that as a no," I conclude. "Your people panicked, and acted first. The result was the war that lost you your planets. Have you tried talking to them ever since?" I ask.

"It's a bit hard to talk to them when they're shooting at you," she snarks in reply.

"Well, that's the thing. No one even tried talking to synthetics. They just find an AI, panic and decide to destroy it. It's probably the same with the AI's themselves. They see an organic and assume it's there to destroy them. A stupid, repeating cycle. Maybe somewhere out there in the galaxy, there's a friendly AI that wouldn't want to kill the first organic being it meets."

Tali snorts at my words. "I didn't think you're a synthetic-organic relations expert," she remarks.

I laugh at that. "I'm not. I never met an AI and all the geth I did meet so far tried to kill me."

"So what makes you think it's possible that friendly AI's exist?"

I snort at that. Besides EDI and Legion? "Silly hope, probably. Works of fiction and so on. It's fiction, yes, but the idea is there. Kinda stupid, I know."

We don't say much after this, leaving us in this slightly uncomfortable silence, which I hate with prejudice. There's just this... awkwardness that surrounds these kinds of silence, where you just don't know what else to say and you're halfway to making the most awful joke in the galaxy just to break it. Or maybe it's just me. My jokes suck most of the time.

Back to track, I think my mission is complete here. I didn't prove anything, but it wasn't my intention anyway. I planted just a small thought into her mind, and hopefully by the time EDI and Legion come into play, it wouldn't be forgotten. Take that Inception. I don't need to travel through dreams in order to plant an idea!

Still, with my side-mission complete... I have no distractions, and it's not an entirely good thing. "Well, I gotta get ready for the mission. And shave," I rub my facial hair. It's not just the usual goat-beard – a rather fond name I'm using to call it – that I have now but it's a total mess with those small sideburns I've grown by now. "I need to do that too."

"I thought Shepard is not taking you this time," Tali reminds me in confusion.

I have a mental wince at that reminder. "Yeah, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't be ready, just in case. Our marine detachment always get ready for our missions, even if they never actually do anything," I point out, glad I have a logical excuse in order to get away for a short while. I need to go over my plan, and completely rewrite it because of the particular snag that I'm not actually on the mission.

"That does make sense," Tali agrees, humming in thought.

"Yep," I say with a small grin. "So for now I'm going to get myself ready and all that jazz. So I'll see you later today," I say and move to the door.

"Alright," Tali says back as I disappear out of the door, where I allow my grin to vanish. I honestly don't feel like grinning at this particular moment. I climb into the elevator and decide to check out the CIC before retiring to my room.

It's all genuinely... depressing. Knowing the future but not knowing what to do about it. I've tried thinking up several plans, and I actually did it but none seemed to ensure an actual success. Every single time one little detail pops up and ruins the whole plan. I don't even know what to do now. The easiest way to deal with it would be to just tell Shepard the truth... yeah right. She'll chuck me off through the airlock faster than I could say 'dimension-slash-universe hopper'.

My omni-tool's message alert pings when I step out of the elevator. Who might be sending me a message now? With a furrowed brow I open up the message.

_'Good luck._

_C'_

I snort at the message. "Asshole," I mutter under my breath. I don't see him doing anything to help me out. What the fuck is his game? First he's telling me not to change anything, and now he's wishing me good luck? Bipolar psycho. I close and delete the message, trying to forget about the ass. Things are always happier when the Chairman is the farthest thing on my mind.

I walk through the door into the CIC and then lean on the railing of the holo-projector and stare at the galaxy map. Usually I'm in this place to marvel the beauty of the galaxy projection – I've spent a couple of hours by now just staring at this thing – but this time I'm just staring at our destination, which is circled out for everyone to see.

I have only one last plan that might work. Keyword is might. There are a lot of things that could go wrong, and Murphy's law is another factor I need to count. Bah, the whole mission is fucked up! What the fuck am I supposed to do with such a stupid situation?!

"You're looking awfully grim," a voice brings me out of my thoughts and I look to see Shepard, who now leans beside me on the railing.

"Oh, Commander. Didn't see you there," I say a bit sheepishly. When I see that her questioning look isn't going away I sigh and look back at the holographic map. "I just have a bad feeling about this mission," I finally say after a long while. I might as well try to give her a vague warning.

She frowns at that. "What makes you say that?"

I consider my words carefully. I don't want her to be suspicious about me possibly knowing things that she doesn't. "It's just been... too easy so far, don't you think so?" I ask, hoping that she'll see what I'm trying to say. "We've saved Liara right from under his nose, we got the Cipher from the thorian, we killed Benezia and released the rachni... and what does Saren do?"

She furrows her brow and after a moment replies. "Nothing."

"Exactly," I say, glad that she got what I was getting at. "I've just got a bad feeling. That this is the mission where our luck finally ends..."

"Relax," she interrupts with a half-smile. "we'll deal with whatever comes our way. We have a good team. We can handle whatever Saren throws our way." Heh. I know it more than you, Shepard. You can handle whatever the _Reapers_ throw at you, Saren should be a walk in the park for us. But that's not what I'm afraid of.

"Probably," I say with a half-hearted smile, unable to help myself.

"Now cheer up!" she says with a wide smile, slapping me on my shoulder. "we'll be getting there tomorrow and I don't need you mucking up everyone's mood with your 'bad feelings'," she says and leaves the CIC.

I look after her until she disappears, unable to get rid of the small smile that's left after her words. There's just something infecting about Shepard's presence. When she wants you to cheer up, you do just that, whether you want it or not. I shake my head and take one last glance at the map before I leave to my room, giving a small glare to a particular circled planet, with a name that seems to mock me: Virmire.

I guess it's time to see if my presence in this universe actually means anything.

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><p><strong>Yeah, yeah, many people will disagree... but I could care less! Terminator 2 is one of the best movies E-V-E-R. I even made this silly emphasis here to show you how much I mean it. Of course, everyone has their own opinions and I respect that. Another awesome movie which I considered featuring in this chapter was the Predator movie... which Wrex would probably love.<strong>

**Either way, yes. The next chapter will be the Virmire mission. I have to say that I'm slightly... shocked to see that I started this story about half a year ago, and I'm so close to the end already. Some of you were here since day 1, which is just amazing to me! So thank you for sticking with the story for so long! You guys are awesome! Thanks for reading the story, and feel free (like some other awesome readers) to tell me what your thoughts about the story, giving suggestions and so on! I'll try getting the chapter done by the next weekend, but who knows how much free time my work will consume. Once again, thank you! Until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	39. Chapter 39

**Hey people! Sorry for the small delay! My uncle decided that he wanted to finally play ME3, and since his computer can't run it, he had to use mine. So I had to use his one to write and sadly, due to some crazy error, about halfway through writing this chapter, the program crashed, and I lose about 40% of what I wrote by then, leaving me only with a two pages intact. so I basically had to rewrite the whole chapter. Yeah. Fun times.**

**Anyway, this is basically the beginning of the Virmire mission! Some of you won't be surprised by how the events will turn out here, but I honestly don't care! Sorry 'bout that, but it's the way I want the story to go. Still, I can easily promise that the events after that will be... awesome. At least I hope so. They look awesome in my head, but sometimes things look really different once they're out of there. Either way, enjoy the new chapter!**

**P.S: Uncle didn't love the ME3 ending too. While he wasn't as vocal about it, he did give me some very logical and fundamental reasons why it sucked, which I completely agree with. I won't list them, since I probably listed them already in one of my earlier ME3 rants already. Either way, to make it short: "The game is awesome, ending not so."  
><strong>

**Now, enjoy the chapter!  
><strong>

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><p>I will never say this out loud… but I'm scared. I know everyone else noticed it, though they didn't comment on it, much to my relief, maybe deciding it was the before-mission nervousness some people experience. Probably because of how quiet I've been since yesterday, and how I've been doing maintenance to my weapons for the last three hours. Joker already dropped them down to the surface of Virmire, but because of those AA towers we have to stay away. The only ones left on the ship are me, Kaidan and Liara, with everyone else being ground-side.<p>

I can't help but be a little bit impressed that I'm pretty much dissembling my rifle and cleaning all the mechanisms without actually paying that much attention to what I'm doing. If anything, despite all the annoying teasing, Ashley is a damn good teacher when it comes to how make sure your weapon is working 100%. Then again, I've been doing this for the past three hours, with only one ten-minutes break, so almost everything I do at the moment is almost mechanic for me.

Which gives me time to think. Which I honestly don't like. I'm… worried, and scared. Worried that I might screw up. Scared that I just might make things worse. Despite the huge effort I'm making in attempt to not think about the Chairman – curse his existence – I can't help remembering his words. That every single one of my actions might change something. And not always for the best. I really hope this isnt the case here.

With a frustrated sigh I assemble the rifle back together, do the needed tests to see if everything is operational and place the rifle on the table. I rub my cleanly shaved face, a bit annoyed at how my skin feels, and walk over to my locker. I might as well put on my armor and everything else. It's all just nerve-wracking. Is this how everyone feels whenever Shepard leaves them on the ship whenever there's an important mission? Doubt it. They don't actually know what's going on down there, unlike me.

The only thing I can do is… just sit here and do nothing but wait. Oh, and torture myself with random thoughts of failure and death. Can't forget that. There are so many ways things can go wrong. The plan I have came up with _should_ – theoretically – accomplish what I'm after… but again, Murphy's Law is a bitch.

By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the Abyss, I hope Shepard shuts down the AA towers as quick as she can. I might do something stupid if she doesn't do it soon.

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><p>I'm checking out my armor's clamps to make sure everything is on correctly when Joker's voice comes through the loudspeakers. <em>"Airspace is clear. Stand by for landing,"<em> he informs everyone. A gentle vibration passes through the ship before it stops as if nothing happened. We probably reentered the atmosphere and…

It means that the mission begins.

A couple of minutes later Kaidan and Liara step into the cargo bay. Liara is already in full gear, since she probably kept her armor in her quarters, so she just needs to grab her weapons. Kaidan looks at me oddly and I just tilt my head to the side in question. "You're already geared up," he remarks with some confusion as he opened his locket to take out his things.

Ah. "I was already in full gear before we started landing," I explain. "Wanted to be ready," I trail off, grabbing my rifle and placing it on my back. I don't really need to say anything else. Now I just need my shotgun and pistol, and I'm done.

The Normandy, as everyone constantly said to me, is unnaturally quiet. Those who grew up on ships, like Shepard and Tali, or those who served on them for years, like Chakwas for instance, found it to be unnerving at first, but there was one thing that stayed the same regardless of the ship class. By now, and I'm still surprised that I can actually pick that up. The slight vibrations going through the floor, almost nonexistent and easy to ignore. The background hum of the whole ship, as if it's breathing around you. It's kinda poetic. Then again, Joker said the last one to me, and he's kinda attached to the ship, so I cant blame him for being poetic about the Normandy. I'd do the same if I had any good poetic capacity.

With a gentle jerk, the vibrations lessened to almost none – the remainder was probably the result of the still active eezo core – and the background humming noise vanished almost completely as the main engine system were turned off. There was a simple explanation: We landed.

At that moment the red warning lights blared to lights. "_Opening cargo hold door,"_ Joker's voice declared and with a loud mechanic hum the doors slowly opened down, revealing the genuinely beautiful tropical beach, and the salarian camp, with several of said salarians curiously watching our ship.

I step down the now-lowered door and into the shallow waters of the beach, looking around with the same amount of curiousness the salarians display. The place looks… well, gorgeous. I can't call it any other way. Out of all the places the first game had, Virmire is definitely the most visually breathtaking. Not that it means the place doesn't suck. Oh, this place sucks on new levels of suck, and it's so high it's definitely beyond comprehension.

Still, one thing is bothering me.

"If we could always land… how come we always drop in the Mako?" I ask Kaidan, who caught up and is now walking beside me.

He just shrugs. "It's probably quicker that way. And I think the Commander loves the drops more," he explains with a half-smile.

I let out a half-snort-half-laugh at that. That does sound like Shepard. One of the salarians, who just happens to be the most important looking one, beckons us over. Kaidan and I share a look and go over to him with a proverbial shrug. "Are you insane?" he yells over to us, not bothering to wait for us to approach. Uh, I think we should hurry up a bit. Kaidan seems to have the same thought going through his head because he run over to him in a light jog, with me following him. "Every AA gun in the area is aware that you're here! Are you the ship's Captain?" he asks Kaidan. Not that I mind. Kaidan definitely looks more… captain-ish than me. What captain will walk around with a skull painted on his helmet anyway? …well, I would, but I'm not a captain.

"No. She should be here any moment now," Kaidan quickly explains with a frown.

"Doesn't matter. You're trapped here the same way we are," the salarian, who I think is Kirrahe, says with a disappointed shake of his head.

A sound from the distant side of the beach makes me look to see our Mako plowing through the shallow water and making it's way over to us. "And there she is," I inform the others.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Kaidan asks with slight frustration while Shepard and the rest of the team jump out of the vehicle and walk over to us.

"Stay put until we can come up with a plan," Kirrahe says simply.

Shepard finally comes over to us and gives us a short nod before turning to the salarian. "Are you in charge here? What's the situation?" she asks. Straight to the business I see.

"I'm Captain Kirrahe. Third Infiltration Regiment STG. You and your crew have just landed in the middle of a hotzone. Every AA gun within ten miles has been alerted to your presence," he repeated the news to us.

Shepard's eyes grow wide, almost comically so, but the situation prevents me from finding humor in it. "Goddammit. That's just great. What now?" she says with a groan, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"We stay put until the Council sends the reinforcements we requested," Kirrahe repeats again, seemingly not bothered to say it again.

An uncomfortable silence descends on everyone as soon as he said that. I clear my throat. "We _are_ the reinforcements," I say, a bit awkwardly.

Kirrahe stares at us for a very, very long moment. I think he's hoping he might be hearing things. "What?" he finally asks, with a bit of disbelief in his voice. "You're _all_ they sent? I told the Council to send a fleet!"

"They couldn't understand your transmission, so they sent me to investigate," Shepard explains, still looking as if she wanted to punch herself.

"That is a repetition of our task," Kirrahe huffs out. "I lost half my men_ investigating_ this place."

"So what have you found?" Kaidan asks.

Just like that, the frustration and disappointment was gone and replaced by pure professionalism. Kirrahe straightened and looked at Kaidan to reply. "Saren's base of operations. He's set up a research facility here, but it's crawling with geth and very well fortified. "

Shepard immediately perks up at that. "Is he here? Have you seen him?"

"No, but his geth are crawling everywhere, and we've intercepted some comms referring to Saren. This is his facility. There's not doubt about that."

"What's Saren researching?" Shepard asks. A fine question. I think that at this point Saren started worrying about how the indoctrination might affect him, hence all the research he set up here. But not only that, of course, he's also-

"He's using the facility to breed and army of krogan," yep, there's also that. Heavy footsteps from behind me make me look to see Wrex approaching. Shit. This is going to get ugly.

"How is that possible?" he asks, apparently having heard him.

"Apparently, Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage," was the simple reply.

"What?!" Both Shepard and Wrex exclaim at the same time. Shepard takes a glance at Wrex, who looks equally surprised as she is. "That's… bad."

"That is putting it lightly," Kirrahe agreed. "Without the genophage, the krogan will quickly overrun the galaxy. And these krogan follow Saren."

"The geth are bad enough, but with the krogan army he'll have… he'd be almost unstoppable," Shepard summarized.

"Exactly my thoughts. We must ensure that this facility and all it's secrets are destroyed."

Wrex raises an eyebrow – or an eye-ridge, whatever they're called – at those words. "Destroy?" he asks as if he heard the stupidest thing to date. "I don't think so. Our people are dying. This cure can save them. "

Kirrahe looks unphased at the prospect of an angry Wrex. "If that cure leaves this planet, the krogan will become unstoppable. We can't make the same mistake again," he states.

This was apparently the wrong thing to say. He walks up to Kirrahe and jabs a finger into his chest. To his credit, Kirrahe calmly and slightly leans his head back. "We are not a mistake," he states and turns away, marching away from our group.

"Is he going to be a problem? We already have enough angry krogan to deal with," Kirrahe calmly asks after turning back to face us.

"He'll be fine. I'll talk to him," Shepard assures him, though she doesn't look that confident in her words, sending a worried glance at Wrex's retreating back.

"I'd appreciate that Commander. My men and I need to rethink our plan of attack. Can you give us some time?"

"Go ahead Captain. I'll come back soon."

Kirrahe nods to us and walks away into one of the tents, leaving us alone. After a couple of silent seconds Kaidan speaks up. "Looks like things are a bit of a mess," he remarks.

"No shit," I agree, still looking after Wrex, who stops by the shore a but of a distance from us and pulls out his gun. "I can't see that many ways for this to get worse, honestly."

"Yeah, I wouldn't be so worried if it wasn't for Wrex. He looks like he's going to blow a gasket."

"Just drop it. I'll talk to him and he'll be fine," Shepard reassures her. "I hope," she added with a grimace as we begin to walk towards the krogan.

"If you say so, but I'm going to keep my eye on him, just in case," Ashley says and this makes me snap my head at her.

"No you're not," I quickly interrupt her. This causes everyone to look at me oddly. "Nothing's going to happen."

"This again?" Ashley asks incredulously, obviously annoyed. "I told you already. I'm just looking out after everyone, including _you!_ Angered krogan are dangerous, especially a battlemaster like Wrex, and when it comes to a genophage cure, most krogan will kill _anything_ that stands in their way-" Ashley's interrupted by a loud and echoing gunshot. We all look to Wrex to see him shooting his shotgun at the water. Ash looks back at me and jabs a finger in my direction. "and we are _not_ an exception," she finishes .

I… I just don't know what to say to that. I have no defense against this… because she is right. Wrex can turn on us because of this. Even now, the possibility is there, despite how much I trust Wrex and know him. Without a high enough paragon score, Shepard can't save him… _Shepard _can't save him.

Screw this. Wordlessly, I turn away from her and march towards Wrex. I'm about halfway there when someone's hand grabs my shoulder and turns me around. I'm half expecting to see Ashley, but instead I see Shepard. "_What_ are you doing?" she asks.

"Making a damn point," I say, trying to keep my voice calm. "I'm gonna fucking show her that Wrex won't do anything. She just can't fucking trust him!" my composure totally fails and I end up half growling the last words. I turn away from her to finish my walk over to Wrex, but she grabs me again and turns me to face her.

"Stop right there. _I'm_ the commanding officer here. I'll talk with him. You go back, and calm down," she tells me – no. Orders me – with utmost seriousness. Shepard is honestly not that tall. I'm pretty sure as far as guys go, standing just an inch or so higher than her, and despite all that, she still manages to look imposing. Right there I almost agree with her. But…

As much as I'd like to believe that Shepard is a total paragon and she'll be able to convince him… I'm not going to risk it. She allowed Garrus to execute Saleon! That doesn't scream paragon to me, no matter how right it was in that situation. "Frankly, at this moment, I don't care. Whether he wants it or not, Wrex is my friend, and I feel insulted that Ashley is even _thinking _that he might betray us," I know better, of course, but this is one of the lower points of Wrex, so I'll let it slide. "I don't know what the hell she got against…" I trail off, spotting something behind Shepard. Ashley, apparently figuring out what I'm about to do, took position near one of the tents, with her rifle unfolded and in her hands, with her finger on the trigger. That was enough to practically make me see red. "Williams! If you pull that trigger, I swear, friend or not, I'm going to fucking punch your face in!" I yell at her with everything I had.

Ashley looks totally surprised by this. Maybe it was because I used her surname for the first time, or maybe it's because I actually yelled at her, which I never did to anyone, but either way, I could care less at the moment. "Williams, what are you…" Shepard turns to look at what the hell Ashley was doing to warrant my behavior and I take the chance to turn away and walk over to Wrex. Shepard notices but I'm out of her reach by the time she does.

Oddly enough, Wrex is still ignoring us, despite all the ruckus I made, which should be hard to ignore since by now the whole camp is watching this. I purposefully approach him and when I'm close enough I speak up. "Wrex! What the hell did the _fish_ do to you? You're worrying everyone."

Wrex turns his head slightly so he could look at me with one eye. "This isn't right. If there's a cure for the genophage, we can't destroy it," he states.

"Shit, you think I don't understand that?" I ask back, stopping in front of him. "But Saren's the enemy here, he's the one doing all this. Stop getting pissed on_ us_ all the time."

"Exactly. Saren created a cure for my people. You want to destroy it," he says with a renewed glare, gesturing at me dismissively.

"It's not that simple, and you know it," I counter, letting some of my anger flow into my words. Why the fuck is he arguing with _me_? I'm not the one in charge of this op!

"Is that so? Then help me out here, Alex. The lines between friend and foe are getting a little blurry from where I'm standing."

Is… is he serious? "You think Saren made this cure out of the goodness of his heart?" I ask him incredulously. "If Saren is allowed use it, I honestly doubt you'd be here to see it! It's a goddamn weapon for him!"

"It's the fate of my entire people we're talking about here!" Wrex snarls, getting into my face. "It's a risk we _should_ be willing to take! I honestly like you, but if you can't give me a better reason than this to destroy the hopes of my people… then I'm done with you. All of you," and with that, he draws his shotgun and points it at me. The sound of unfolding weapons lets me know that Shepard did the same.

For a second there I'm about to draw my own weapon but I quickly reign it in. Such a long time constantly participating in battles pretty much made it part of my instincts to draw a weapon when a weapon is aimed at me. Not this time though. "So this is how it goes? You'll just shoot me? Everything that's going on here is bigger than the genopaphage, and you fucking know it!" I say angrily. By the nine hells, why does he have to be so stubborn.

"So that's it, huh? All this time… and that's all I get from you?" Wrex asks, both anger and disappointment entering his voice. "You know what the krogan are going through! How can't you see how important this is to us? This base can't be destroyed. I won't allow it."

"Of course I know how important this is to the krogan, and to _you!_" I finally snap. "Under different circumstances, I'll be the first one to help you cure your people!" I take a step forward and slap his shotgun away, so it won't be pointing at me, since that thing makes me nervous. Thankfully, he doesn't shoot me for it. He looks slightly taken aback that I'm yelling at him. Then again, it's probably because I'm unarmed and I can't really do anything to him either way. "But you know what will happen if Saren uses the cure! I know you do! He might as well shove his hand up your people's asses and work you like muppets, because that's what you will be to him! Disposable tools and slaves," I jab a finger into Wrex's face. "The Council used you once and what did your people get out of it? A goddamned useless statue and the genophage. And you think that _Saren_ will be better?"

"No. We were tools for the Council once… and that didn't end well for us. I doubt Saren will be as generous," he says, a lot more calmly now. He stares at me for a very, very long moment until he finally lowers his shotgun. "Alright Alex, you've made your point," he finally says and with a sigh, turns to Shepard. "I don't like this, but I trust you enough to follow your lead. Just one thing… when we find Saren, I want his head."

"That can be arranged," Shepard agrees with a grim nod.

"Either way, cheer up, big guy," I say to Wrex, trying to contain my grin but still ending up with a half-smile on my facee. "There's still hope. This proves that a cure can be made. Maybe not today, but perhaps not that long from now. You just need the right guy for the job," someone like Mordin. I really hope he does get around to work on the cure.

Wrex hums in thought at my words before he replies. "Maybe," he finally says and with that, turns and walks off.

"Wrex," Shepard calls after the krogan. He stops again and looks at us with evident exasperation. "If we find any data in the base... I'll make sure we save it," Wrex's eyes widen slightly at those words, including mine at what Shepard just offered, and he gives her a grateful nod. I watch him walk away for a few seconds before I allow myself to breath in relief. Holy crap! I just saved Wrex! Haha! This is freaking awesome! I can't believe I actually did it. For a moment there I really thought that he'd shoot me. A nudge on my shoulder makes me look at Shepard, who is giving me a small smile. "Good job. I honestly didn't think you could do it. Under any different circumstances, I'd have you dumped back on the Citadel for insubordination, but I'll let it slide this time," and then her smile vanishes just like that, replaced by an angry frown. "Don't do it again. Ever."

Whoa, that's just scary. "Yes ma'am," I quickly nod nervously.

"Good," and with that, Shepard walks back to Kirrahe, leaving me there to dwell on what I just did. Well, either way, I'm not regretting anything!

I quickly move to catch up with the Commander, sending a pointed look at Ashley, who is looking at me with quite a bit of surprise. "See? Nothing to worry about."

"You could've been killed," Kaidan answers in her stead, looking at me grimly.

That's true. I pretty much brushed hands with death right now! I've seen what Wrex's shotgun could do. No possible way to survive that. "Yes," I agree. "but I didn't. All that worry was for nothing. We know Wrex, and we know he won't do anything like that. This is just… personal for him."

"Yeah. I'd say the cure is pretty personal," Kaidan agrees about that, but says nothing about the rest of it.

We finally reach Kirrahe and he gives me a long glance before speaking to Shepard. "Thank you for speaking with the krogan. The assault on Saren's base will be difficult enough as it is."

Whaa? I don't even get the credit for it? That's disappointing. "I assume that means you've come up with a plan," Shepard concludes.

"Of sort," the salarian admits. "We can convert our ship's drive system into a twenty-kiloton ordnance. Crude, but effective."

Wait… an idea! Holy crap, why didn't I think of it before? "Drop that nuke from orbit and Saren can kiss his turian ass goodbye," Ashley says smugly, voicing exactly my thoughts. But… if Ashley could think of it, how come that was unavailable in the game?

"Unfortunately, the facility is too well-fortified for that. We'll need to place the bomb in a precise location."

Fuck! There goes the safest plan. This means I'll have to go with my first, and only plan. "That sounds easy," Shepard says. physically feel the sarcasm in that sentence. "where do we take the nuke? And how do we get there?"

"Your ship can drop it off, but we'll need to infiltrate the base, disable the AA guns, and pacify the ground forces first."

"You want us to go on foot? We don't have enough men!" Kaidan interjects before Kirrahe can continue

"Is there no other way?" I ask, hoping beyond hope that there might be something else we could do.

"No," is the simple reply that crushes the little hope I built so far. "But I think we can work around that. I'm going to divide my men into three teams and hit the front of the facility. While we've got their attention, you can sneak in your 'Shadow' team in the back."

"It's a good idea," Shepard reluctantly admits. "but your people are going to get slaughtered."

"We're tougher than we look, Commander. But it's true. I don't expect many of us to make it out alive. And that makes what I'm going to ask even more difficult. I need one of your men to accompany me. To help coordinate the teams."

"We'll need someone who knows Alliance communication protocols," Shepard begins but she's quickly interrupted by Kaidan.

"I volunteer, Commander," he firmly says.

Shepard's eye grow wide as she look at Kaidan in worry. She's about to say something when Ashley beats her to the punch. "Not so fast LT. The Commander will need to arm the nuke. I'll go with the salarians."

"With all due respect, Gunnery Chief," oooh, pulling rank on her, are you Kaidan? "It's not your choice to make."

Ashley scoffs at that. "Why is it whenever someone says 'With all due respect' they really mean 'kiss my ass'?" Ashley muses out loud. Exactly my thoughts!

Shepard's looking over at Ashley and Kaidan in turn, mulling over the choice. She's obviously conflicted about all of this. More than one reason, of course. She has her thing going on with Kaidan, that much is obvious. Everyone knows. Finally, with a heavy sigh, Shepard looks at Ashley. "Williams. You'll accompany the captain. No heroics, understood?"

"Aye, aye, Commander!" Ashley replies, snapping a quick salute.

Damn, I hoped I won't have to do it... but there is no choice. The moment of truth. I step forward to the commander and catch her attention. "Commander," I say, trying to do my 'official soldier' voice. Requesting permission to join Ashley and Captain Kirrahe in the assault." Shepard's eyes grow wide once again as she looks at me with surprise, but I don't give her a chance to reply. "You heard him. They'll need all the help they can get. I know for a fact that the ship's marines are itching for a fight, and that they would gladly join the assault. Your team will have to be small, so I might as well help them survive the assault instead of sitting on my ass on the Normandy. Give me a couple of marines and we'll make a difference," I say, trying to sound determined and sure of myself, because I sure as hell don't feel like it.

Shepard look conflicted again, probably because she feels she might be sending another soldier to the slaughterhouse. She gives Kirrahe a glance, wordlessly asking for his input. "As much as I'd like to say otherwise, we'll need all the support we can get if we want to survive this. Of course, that doesn't mean I want everyone you have. We want to catch their attention, not have the whole base on our heads. The men I have with me should be more than enough for that. As he said, an addition of three soldiers will be enough," Kirrahe says. Thank you Captain! For a moment I didn't think he'd support my idea.

Shepard looks at me grimly but eventually speaks. "Permission granted. Same thing goes to you too. No heroics, got that?"

"Crystal," I reply with an understanding nod.

"Good. Stay with the captain for now. I'll radio Joker to send down the marines. Good luck," with that, Shepard takes Kaidan with her and leaves to the rest of our squad, leaving me and Ash with Kirrahe. Ashley looks at me with an analyzing look, but wordlessly goes into Kirrahe's tent. I take it she's still a bit... annoyed with me that I yelled at her like that. Well, it's her problem. I probably saved Wrex's life, even if no one will ever acknowledge it. That's enough for me. Kirrahe calls me over so we could go over our plan of attack. I guess it's something I need to hear, so I wordlessly follow. I'll deal with Ashley later... if we survive this.

And so... my plan is already underway. I'm very aware that I'm risking my life, even more than usual because there chances of me catching a bullet here are so much higher. The whole base will want our heads, and as Kirrahe said, not everyone will come out. I might die here if I'm not careful enough, or smart enough, but I have to do it. There's no other way around it. I'm outside of the set events, so it's only something I can do, as far as I know at least. My whole plan revolves around this.

All it took is a simple, small analysis of the mission. Why does the mission suck so much? Because the game forces the player to choose between two teammates. At first it seems complicated but the truth is rather evident. Everything is more than simple. The solution?

I'll just have to make sure that Shepard doesn't have to choose.

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><p><strong>Yeah! Here we go. Next chapter will start the Virmire mission for real!<br>**

**Yes, I can probably assume that most of you were expecting this, but then again, who cares? It might be something you expected, but considering it was never in the game, my take on it will be utterly new and different! So even if you expected this turn of events... you'll get something new and original out of it! Something which I really like! Oh, and the marines finally get to see some action! Which is already new in itself. So yeah, next chapter should definitely be interesting.  
><strong>

**I have no idea when I'll get it done. Work honestly sucks and I won't have a day off during the weekends for about the next... month and a half. Which totally sucks. Days off in the middle of the week are the shit... in a bad way. So, I'll write whenever I can and hopefully, I'll get it done in a week or so. Not promising anything, but the chapter won't take longer than two weeks to complete. Hopefully one. So... wish me luck!  
><strong>

**Thanks for reading my story! I'm honestly glad you enjoyed the story, and your feedback makes me genuinely happy! I love when you review and tell me what you think, so keep doing it! Your opinion is important to me, so don't be afraid to let me know what you think. I thrive on it ^^  
>So... until next time, enjoy this chapter and until next week. Delvaro out!<br>**


	40. Chapter 40

**Hello everyone! I am FINALLY back! First off, I have to apologize for the collosally long wait. I've been expecting to finish this in just a week, but RL just had to grab a sledgehammer and crush all my plans with a, pardon my language, shitload of things that took most of my time. Like my goddamned job. Two weeks of the possibly most shitty shifts on the planet. I wake up, go to work, get home, shower, eat something, maybe watch a movie or something, go to sleep and repeat. No time for ANYTHING, not to mention writing. So yeah, had a loooooot of stuff to do, most of them are highly annoying and I'd rather write instead of doing them but alas, life has a tendency of giving you stuff you just have to do.**

**Either way, I'm here now and I have to apologize again because this is NOT the complete chapter I was planning. Yeah, you probably wonder "But you had so much time, it's been around three weeks, or more! How could you write only this little?" well... yeah, I suck! I had a small writer's block for my last couple of days off and couldnt write anything. I just finished this chapter, with a hang-over - had a kinda-party with my coworkers about some long-forgotten record our sector beat, and I just knew that drinking that damn absinthe would come back to bite me in the ass - so... you might notice the results of my headache. I double-checked everything and there arent any weird combinations of randomly pressed letters in the middle of a word anymore.**

**So... yeah, back to topic. I split up this chapter because I felt that I made you wait long enough and decided to upload this part so you could have something to read while I'm finishing (or starting in this case) writing down the main event of this mission.**

**So... without anymore delays, enjoy this sadly-short chapter :)**

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><p>"Ha! I told ya he's a nice guy! He got us a mission!" A very familiar voice makes me turn my attention away from the gathering of salarians and over to Doug, the friendly marine, who was speaking rather loudly, almost yelling actually, to another marine, a female, judging by the rather... obvious chestplate. Keyword is the chest in the chestplate.<p>

"And I don't care. I never even met the guy," she replies exasperatedly. Yeah, Doug can be... very enthusiastic. I can't get a look on her face, since she's in full gear with her helmet on and visor polarized.

"Still done more to us than most guys on board! I was dying from boredom until now," Doug replies and then looks at me. "And there he is!"

I take a moment to inspect what they're carrying. The woman is carrying a sniper rifle, with a pistol on her hip, so I guess she'll be our long range fighter, and Doug is carrying... oh my. "Is that...?" I trail off, trying to get a better look at it.

Apparently realizing what I want to do, he pulls it off his back and unfolds the tube-like weapon. "Yep! This baby is my rocket launcher," he slowly runs his hand across the weapon, smoothly and gently, almost as if he's caressing it. "I call her Julia."

The sniper snorts at that and I can tell she's rolling her eyes, even if I can't see her face. "Sergeant Riley," she offers me her hand and I take it. Wow, she's got a strong grip there. "Nice to finally meet you. This idiot wouldn't shut up about you," she jerks her thumb over at Doug, who gasps in mock hurt. "Anyway, Commander Shepard put us under your command, so mind telling us what we're getting into?"

Huh, I thought she'd told them what we're doing by... wait, wait, _wait_. What? I must have misheard something. "Mind telling me that again?" I ask weakly.

Riley cocks her head to the side as a sign of confusion but complies. "Commander Shepard put us under your command -"

"She _what?_" I ask incredulously. Is she fucking _insane_? I... I cant command! I'm a follower, not a goddamn leader! Never mind all the small technicalities that are involved in leading a military unit, like proper procedures and all that shit, which I'm obviously not familiar with beyond what I've seen in movies and Shepard do, I simply don't have a clue about how to lead a unit. I can improvise, obviously, but... this isn't a game. This isn't a normal mission either. We're essentially going into a suicide mission now, and I can't afford to just wing it.

"Dude, just relax," Doug decides to break the tension, ignoring the small amount of salarians that were now watching us, having heard my exclamation. "You just have to relay your orders to us, and tell us what to shoot at. Nothing really complicated about it. You'll do fine. So... mind telling us what we're getting into?"

By the nine hells... I honestly hope that it will be just as Doug said. I have enough on my mind already, and more than enough ways to screw up everything. "Uh..." I begin, trying to ignore the two or three salarians who are watching me. "Alright, I'll, uh, try not to sugarcoat it," damn, I haven't done this thing before, so my briefing sounds shitty as hell, and I've just started. Okay, let's channel my inner military leader... if I even have one. "We are basically heading into a suicide mission. The Commander and her team are going to sneak inside the base and take it out from within, while we and the salarians are going to be the main event. Our main objectives are pretty simple. Make shit blow up and get their attention so Shepard will have less problems to deal with while she's infiltrating the place."

"Sounds fun," Doug comments dryly and Riley elbows him in the ribs to shut him up.

"Our main target is one of the main AA towers. We get there, disable it and the Normandy delivers the bomb. Provided we're even alive by that point, we quickly haul ass and sit back to watch the fireworks. And that's the plan in a nutshell. It's gonna be rough, the chances of us all dying are pretty high, but if we do this, we'll bite off a huge chunk out of Sarens ass Any questions?" I finish and wait for the two marines to respond.

"Hm, morbid, clear and to the point, just enough humor in it and a promising end. I'd give it a seven," Doug finally speaks.

"Nah, it's a six. The start was rather bad, so I got to take down a point for it," Riley interjects. What the hell are they talking about?

Doug hums in thought and finally nods. "True, but since it's his first time, I give him a bonus point for effort.

"Are you guys rating my speech?" I ask in confusion. I get two nods. "And I get a seven?"

"Well, normally you'd get a six, or even a five, but we're giving you a break since you're still a newbie at this thing," Doug explains. "with some practice though, you might someday get to the Commander's level."

"Uh... okay. Thanks, I guess?" I finally say, not really sure how to respond to this. They must've been_ really_ bored on the ship.

At that moment Kirrahe came to stand before the gathering and everyone turns their attention to look at him. He looks over at us for a long moment, his gaze lingering mostly on his men, until he finally speaks. "You all know the mission, and what is at stake. I have come to trust each of you with my life - but I have also heard murmurs of discontent." he paused there for a short moment, giving everyone a look. Some salarians bristled at that. "I share your concerns. We are trained for espionage. we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way. Think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who defeated a nation with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts. These giants do not seem to give us solace here, but they are not all that we are. Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers! Our influence stopped the rachni, but before that we held the line! Our influence stopped the krogan, but before that we held the line! Our influence will stop Saren; in the battle today, we will hold the line! " several salarians let out a short cheer at those words and hell, I think I felt some sort of shiver going down my spine by the end of it. I've heard the speech before, but being here, in this situation with them makes the speech leave a totally different impression.

"A solid ten." Doug finally concludes after a moment of silence.

"Nine," Riley counters.

Without needing to say another word everyone started moving, with Kirrahe taking the lead. With a mental shrug, I follow, gesturing to the marines to follow me. Looks like the fun is about to start.

* * *

><p>"<em>Blue team and I will take the lead in the assault. Red team will make sure we are not overrun, since their attention will be mostly on my team, and will carry the heavy weapons. Green team will be our support and watch our flanks,"<em> Kirrahe gives a quick overview of what we'll be doing. _"Skull team,"_ he then says, and since he already spoke to everyone other than me, I guess he's talking to me now.

"Skull team?" I ask with some confusion. Everyone gets colors and I get a skull?

"_You have a skull painted on your helmet. Easy to remember,"_ huh, when he says it that way, I have to agree. _"Your job will be to eliminate high threat level targets. The composition of your squad fits this task the most. Make sure none of them get to us."_

"Roger than, Captain," I reply and look at my small squad. "You heard that, right?"

"Loud and clear," Doug replies. "and in case you're wondering, high threat targets means anything with rocket launchers, machineguns, sniper rifles and so on. Anything that can cause serious damage. It will be up to us to take them out before they can do that."

Ah, now I get the remark about the team composition. "Aye, I get that. Simple enough," I answer. Riley is a sniper, so she can take them out from afar, and Doug has a rocket launcher, so he can take out armored targets, like geth juggernauts and so on, while I'm... well, I guess I can add some suppressive fire into the mix, maybe take out a few geth here and there and make sure to keep my own team alive.

Simple enough, isn't it?

"Get over here," Riley calls me over from behind me, where she's fiddling with her omni-tool. I slow down my pace to walk beside her. "Give me your frequency." I raise an eyebrow at that, but do it anyway. Reaching for my own omni-tool, I do just that. A few seconds later something new pops up on the upper right corner my HUD. A pair of name tags pop up, one for PFC D. Stanford and the other for a Sgt. S. Riley. At that moment, the tag for Riley lit up and her voice came over the comm. Wow, that's really convenient. I wonder why Shepard never did it with us? _"Good. I added you to our squadcomm. I hope you know how to use your hardsuit's VI, I hope?"_ she asks me.

Uh... okay, how do I answer that? I know that my suit has a VI... but I'm not really sure on how to actually use it beyond what it does automatically. "Uh, kinda?" I finally answer. "I've never worn a hardsuit before joining the Normandy crew, so..." I trail off, hoping she'll get what I mean.

I hear her sigh, much to my irritation. "Alright, it's nothing complicated. I'll explain you what you need to know for now, like how to tag a target," before I could ask what she means, Doug was suddenly highlighted, like a red silhouette around him, making him easy to notice. Whoa, that's awesome. "Doug is now tagged, as you can obviously see. Only those in the squad can see someone tagged, so don't expect the salarians to see it. Since you'll be my spotter, you'll have to tag the high priority targets, if Doug hadn't done it by then."

Niiiice. "So how do I do that?" the whole thing is pretty awesome. Seriously, I want to know why Shepard didn't do it with us.

"Pretty simple. Since you probably didn't calibrate anything about your VI, and your helmet is more than likely calibrated to your eyesight, you just need to stare at something and use your voice. Just say tag while staring at something."

Huh, that simple? I look at one of the salarians in front of us for several seconds before I say tag and just as Riley said, he was suddenly highlighted. "Ooh, how nice," I remark, still staring at him. "Uh, untag?" I half state, half ask and to my relief, the salarian was untagged. At least I figured it out on my first try.

"Yeah, you figured it out. I suggest you calibrate it for a more comfortable method, so you won't have to say it all the time, like a specific order of blinking or something. Whatever floats your boat. I, for example, have to wink to tag something."

Hm, sounds very awesome. I wonder why I never even considered fiddling with my suit VI. Actually, I did learn how to zoom in with my helmet, but since I'm not a sniper, or the fact that most of the time we're fighting indoors, I simply have no use for it. Until now, at least. Now we're out in the open, and I get to play spotter for Riley.

"_Attention teams,"_ Kirrahe's voice flowed through the comm. _"we are approaching the base. You know what to do."_

At that very moment, everyone split up. We are approaching the base from the beach and so far, we encountered no resistance at all. Not even scouts or anything. Apparently they really do not suspect this attack. With the sea to our right and the cliffs to our left our approach is pretty obvious, so it should make our mission rather hard. We're going to be pressed against the sea and without much cover to use. On the other hand, Kirrahe's scouts uncovered a small path through the cliffs which offers a very good overview of the base entrance. That's exactly where our snipers are going to be.

We split off from the main group and follow the salarians through a narrow entrance through the cliff face. After that follows a short, but quite annoying climb. I'm not a climber, so I encounter some difficulties, mostly because the place is so narrow and we're bulkier than the salarians, who pass through without any trouble. Finally, after a minute or so, we finally reach the top and the whole place opens for us.

Okay, let's see here... a geth armature in front of the gates, lot's of patroling geth on the walls and on the floor. "Alright, I see an armature and lot's and lot's of geth," I say over the comm. "get your heavy weapons ready because once we start firing, that thing will have it's attention on us."

"_Acknowledged, skull team,"_ a different salarian, probably the one leading blue team replies.

Alright, let's get this started. They still didn't notice anything wrong, so we're safe for now. Okay, let's search for high-priority targets. Let's see here... a couple of rocket troopers on top of the wall. Seems like a fine target. I quietly say tag and they're both outlined.

Riley doesn't take the shot immediately, in fact none do. For now, everyone is marking targets and getting ready. Just then, Kirrahe speaks again. _"On my mark, we begin the assault. Is everyone ready?"_ I hear a chorus of acknowledgments from the other teams and quickly give my own. _"Good. We begin the assault... now!"_

And on his word, like some crazy chorus, every sniper rifle shot at the same time. Geth started dropping like flies to the ground. One of the geth I marked had it's head completely blown off and the second one didn't even have time to properly react before it suffers the same fate.

With that, our element of surprise if nearly gone. The armature slowly turns around to look up at us, locating us within a second, and started charging up a shot. Before it could do that though, a pair of rockets slam against it's side, quickly joined by a third one from Doug. Still, it was not enough to take it out, but it did take out it's shields and made it screw up the shot. The bright bolt flew at us, but impacted ways below us. The ground shook violently and for a second I think that the whole thing will collapse below us but when nothing happens, I squash that worry. The armature won't last long, considering the salarians already reloaded their rocket launcher and are now shooting another volley.

I turn my attention to the quickly-developing battlefield below and see Kirrahe, with Ashley beside him, quickly followed by the rest of the salarians, charging the base. By now, the geth finally regrouped and figured out who was attacking them and from where and most of their attention turned to the main assault.

Alright, time to be a spotter. I quickly spot down another rocket trooper on the wall, moving over to aim at Kirrahe's man. I quickly tag him and not a second later, I hear a bang beside me and it drops down like a ragdoll, with a hole neatly placed in it's head. Damn! Now that's fucking awesome! It didn't even take a second! I quickly find another geth unit that has a good view on our guys and the fact that it's lining up a shot should be enough for me to tag it, and I do just that. Again, not a second later, a gunshot from my right and the geth goes down, once more with a headshot.

Despite the situation, and perhaps because I've finally gone insane, I break into laughter. "This is fucking awesome!" I state while tagging another geth rocket trooper.

Kirrahe's men finally reached the wall, and I simply have to wonder at the tactical value of having a walkway on both sides of the wall, leaving the upper part easily accessible. I mean, it seems like something incredibly... stupid, especially for logical beings like the geth. It only stops vehicles from passing, so since we're on foot, the gate isn't really an obstacle, other than giving the geth higher ground... which was unavailable for them since we kinda had the higher higher ground.

I follow Ashley for a couple of seconds, just enough to catch her shooting down a geth unit without even slowing down before I turn my attention back to my spotter duty. I spot a trio of rocket troopers running over, probably the closest reinforcements, and I quickly tag them but before I can watch Riley take them out, something flies in front of my eyes. I quickly zoom out and see several fliers are heading our way.

Shit. "Drones!" I yell while reaching for my rifle. This get's everyone's attention and suddenly, the telltale retort of sniper rifles is gone and is replaced by the sound of pistols and assault rifles. Riley, on the other hand, simply takes a glance at one of the drones and lets out a single shot. Said drone suddenly exploded and dropped down like dead weight. _Daaaamn!_ She's like... the human female version of Garrus with that sniper rifle!

"He shoots," Doug yells, shooting out another rocket and to my amazement, hits a drone that was in the process of strafe-shooting us. "And scores!" he yells in glee, holding his arms up in the air. I got to admit, that _was_ an impressive shot. Even if there was a bit too much showing off involved. Well, I want to shoot something, and these drones are dropping like flies.

I shoulder my rifle and pick one that's flying dangerously close, firing at the salarians. I shoot out a series of short bursts and the second one finally hits, breaking through the shields and apparently hitting something important because it simply stops flying and drops down to crash against the cliff. I change my aim on another drone but before I can pull the trigger, a rifle shot from Riley drops down the thing. With a mental shrug I switch my attention to other targets, but to my surprise I find none. In less than a minute, the air is clear of drones.

I look down to the main assault and see that they pretty much took over the wall, finishing off the handful of geth defenders that are still operational. I tag one of them, a regular unit that was hiding behind a pretty fortified cover. A split-second later, boom and a headshot! "Damn! That's just freaking awesome!" I exclaim, looking over at Riley. "Barely a second of delay!"

"Hah! I know!" Doug yells over. "She's like a raging bull! It's really funny, actually. Try throwing something red in front of her and she has this weird reflex where she tries to reach for her rifle. It's especially funny during lunch, because then it usually ends up with her food tray flying all over the place!" he finishes with a loud and hearty laugh.

"I swear. If you do it one more time, I'll shove my rifle so far up your ass..." she trails off from there, preferring to silently fume to herself. Doug simply shrugs it off with another laugh.

Huh, these guys are a funny bunch. I have to reminds myself to hang out with them more often. And I actually want to see Riley throwing her food tray all over the table. That sounds funny as hell.

"_Attention all teams,"_ Kirrahe's commanding voice breaks the laughter. _"We've breached the front gates. Regroup and prepare for the real battle to begin. We caught them by surprise but now they know we're here and they're expecting us. This day will get harder from here on out." _Damn, way to break the mood. Well, he's right either way. We just broke through the outermost shell of their defense. The bigger and meaner stuff is inside.

I look over at the sides, suddenly wondering how we're going to regroup with Kirrahe. Are we going back the way we climbed up or... oh, look at that. The salarians just pulled out an ass-pull and managed to procure rope from somewhere, which they are now using to rappel down to ground-level. From the way things look, I guess we're going down the same way.

We move over to the ropes and that's when I spot our first casualty. A lone salarian leaning against the wall, several gunshot wounds visible on his torso. The drones must've gotten a bit too close to his side and managed to get a lucky shot. The salarian beside him shakes his head in an exhausted manner and from the fact that his hands are covered in blood, I'm sure he was the one who was trying to save his life...

Now I feel like an asshole because I was having fun while one of our allies was bleeding to death.

The salarians tied up a pair of ropes and quickly and expertly get down and soon enough, much too fast in my opinion, it's suddenly my turn. Shit, I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm kinda afraid of doing crazy things that might screw me over. Like rappelling. I've never done stuff like this before – other than that embarrassing occasion back in the burning building back on the Citadel, which feels like so long ago, despite the fact that not even a year passed – so I kinda feel like I might screw up and end up landing on a sharp rock and skewering myself on this beach. That would just suck. In a huge assault on a geth controlled base, I'll be the only guy to die in a rappelling accident. What a way to go.

Wow, my imagination is fucked up. And I'm kinda slowing everyone down with the way I dumbly stare at the rope in my hands. There aren't even any safety measures! One slip and I'm plummeting to my death!

Riley just takes the other rope and nimbly slides down, pushing herself off the rock wall and within seconds reaching the floor without incident.

Okay, now I just look bad. I pull the rope, just to make sure it's properly tied down, and slowly lower myself down. Just fucking awesome. I'm hanging above my imminent death. "Hurry the fuck up!" Doug yells from above me and I try to send him my best glare but alas, my attention is held by the ground, which is pretty far away from where I am right now. Either way, I should hurry up, before Doug embarrasses me further. Carefully, I kick myself off the rock and let the rope slide through my hands for a second before I grab hold of it and land on the rock a few meter below my starting point. Okay, that's good. Didn't fall yet. We aren't that high anyway, so in a couple more leaps I'm low enough that I can just release the rope and safely land on the sand.

Once I'm on the floor Doug takes the rope and makes it down in just two leaps, and from the way he looks at me once he's down, I get the feeling he trying to tell me something with his admittedly better performance at rappelling. The show off...

Either way... the real assault begins now. So far it's been relatively easy, with just a single unfortunate casualty. So far everything goes according to plan, and for some reason, I have a really bad feeling that soon enough, things are going to get a lot harder and a lot more dangerous.

The _real_ assault begins now.

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><p><strong>And... that's it for now! Yeah, sorry that it's so short. I honestly expected I'd write the whole mission by now but... well, you know how it is. Life's annoying with the things it throws at you. Either way, next chapter will host the main event, and it should be intense! Or at least, it's intense in my head, but I'm sure it'll be just as awesome on paper... or digital paper in this case. One way or another, it's going to be awesome! :D<strong>

**So... thanks to everyone who reviewed! Your reviews are awesome! Really, they are! You guys bring me a lot of joy each time one of you says that my story is enjoyable, or realistic and these kind of things really make me happy. So thank you! And to those who never commented, well... I'm just glad that you read the story, and since you're still here and reading it, judging by all the alerts this story has, I'm pretty sure that you enjoy it, so thank you as well! So... feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you thought of the chapter, or the story as a whole! I love your reviews! Also, feel free to point out any mistakes you find out in the lore or writing or whatever. I'll try to fix them, if I remember them, but I appreciate the fact that you care :) Once again, thanks!**

**Until next time, Delvaro out!**


	41. Chapter 41

**Hello there my lovely readers! I am back and much sooner than you probably expected! I've finally managed to write down a chapter close to when I said I would! Lovely, isn't it? Either way... let's get things rolling!**

**First of all... we're all alive! I've honestly never believed in that crap. Seriously, anciant mayans predicting more than a millenia into the future the end of our world? Bullshit. I doubt they cared. I doubt they even could predict the future. If they could, I think their empire would've survived a bit longer, now wouldnt it? Besides, first of all, our mind simply cannot comprehend such a long amount of time. Yes, we know how much a thousand years is, but it's just numbers in our heads. Look at the early 20th century. It looks like it was_ soooo_ long ago. And that's like... a century or so ago. It's LONG for us, because a century is a lifetime for us. It's something that we can easily comprehend. A millenia? I doubt the mayans could even understand what a freaking thousand years are, or even how long it is. If they did, I bet they would NOT care, because they'd all be dead by then, and honestly, I don't think they'd care that much for future generations, as far a civilizations go.**

**Either way, as far as apocalypses go (is that even a word? Apocalypses... is there even a plural for apocalypse?) this was the lamest one in the history of the universe. Now the TV is annoying me all the programms telling me WHY we didn't die, and they attribute it to something supernatural, spiritual or something else that will sound silly even from the mouth of a drunkan guy in a bar.**

**So yeah... the new chapter is here! First of all... I'm Evil! Yes! With a capital E! Because of where this chapter has taken me... I decided to split it up once again. Yes. This means Virmire is not over yet, as you obviously learned from the simple length of this chapter. It's short, but I wanted it this way. For the most optimal result, at least a result that I want, the chapter had to be split. Next chapter will deal with all the other important bits. And I think I can safely say that I'll really be done with this mission. I planned out the whole thing, so... yeah, I'm going to follow the plan, so Virmire will end in the next chapter.  
><strong>

**So... enjoy the chapter and have fun! **

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><p>"Jesus fucking Christ!" I yell out in both shock and fear. Was that a fucking rocket that just flew right over my head? Judging by the earth-shaking explosion that occurred right behind me and caused me to stumble in my sprint, yes, yes it was.<p>

Now why the hell are they targeting _me?_ There are like... almost twenty salarians all over the place and I'm the one these rocket troopers focus on. That's just fucking unfair!

I literally dive over to my target, a high rock that provided some cover on this open beach, and land rather sluggishly, pretty much burying my face into the sand for a split second. Not that I care honestly, I'm being shot at and no one really gives a damn about appearances in this kind of situation.

We essentially barely got into the base. After we breached the outer defenses, which were rather pathetic as far as I'm concerned. That should've been a lot harder and... well, it got a lot harder soon enough. Just several minutes later, where absolutely nothing happened, and then... we reached the second wall.

And shit basically hit the fan and sprayed all over our poor faces.

We were in a rather narrow passage with cliffs on both sides, just about twenty or so meter in width. Not much room to maneuver but thankfully there are a lot of rocks we can hide behind and the cliff walls have some crevices that can be used as cover. Unfortunately, this time we didn't have any high ground that our snipers could use, we didn't have the element of surprise either. The geth knew we were coming, and they prepared accordingly. It's an uphill battle. We have to climb up a short hill to reach the second wall, and sadly, on top of that hill there is another armature. We were at a big disadvantage here. They had troopers on top of the wall, with a good view on us and they easily could shoot every one of us down, considering the damn armature kept us pinned down. Already, this soon into the battle, we've suffered casualties. Two unlucky salarians weren't fast enough to reach cover and the armature got off one lucky shot that took them down. With our snipers remaining behind us where they shot down whatever they could, it was up to us to deal with the armature and whatever else they threw at us.

Without wasting anymore time, I peek out of cover and quickly tag the trio of rocket troopers, one of which just tried to blow me up, and lay down some suppressive fire… or just get their attention again. Since Riley has quite a lot to deal with, it takes her considerably longer to react to the tagged geth. Several seconds after being marked, one of the geth drops down from a headshot and I use this moment of confusion – if geth can even be confused – to strike. This time I bother to aim. I lean out of the rock and fire a couple of short bursts. All the rounds land, much to my relief, and the second geth falls down, quickly followed by the third one via another shot from Riley.

I lean back behind cover to let my rifle cool down before I look for another target. I'm not going to bother marking the armature, since everyone is already working on getting rid of it. So I concentrate on the geth on top of the wall. I quickly tag a sniper and aim at the rest of the regular geth troopers. I fire another burst, manage to take one down before I have to hide again because suddenly, almost every geth on top of that damn wall decides to shoot at me. I duck down and curl myself to make myself a smaller target as the rock I'm leaning against shakes and cracks with every shot it takes. Pieces of rock fly around with every shot my cover takes, unable to handle the onslaught and breaking in a viciously slow manner. I assume that some of the salarians shot at the geth, because suddenly I'm no longer being fired at and someone else is suffering from that more-than-effective suppressive geth fire.

I allow myself to raise my head and look at the rock I'm hiding behind, or at least what's left of it. Dammit. Another attack like that and I don't think the rock will protect me anymore. Fuck, I think I liked this universe more when the covers were indestructible...

"Take that!" I hear Doug yell, both over the comm. and loud enough to be heard through his helmet as he stands up from his own rock and fire his rocket launcher at the armature, "And that!" and quickly follows it up by lobbing a grenade at the machine.

The rocket hits the armature head on, sending it rearing back and annihilating all what remained of it's shield. A second later, the grenade landed right underneath the machine and detonated, tearing apart the underside of the armature. Despite being utterly beaten up and having taken a colossal amount of damage, the armature was still operational. Thankfully, our salarian STG friends wouldn't allow that. Another rocket flies from their direction and hits the armature squarely in the head, which was charging up another shot. The explosion, combined with the charging shot of the armature weaponry, was enough to utterly annihilate the armature in a glorious explosion that sent it's pieces flying all over the place.

"And that's how you do it!" Doug yells victoriously, throwing his arm up into the air while giving the geth a taunting middle finger. Unfortunately, I guess the geth knew what the middle finger meant, because I think that every single geth in the vicinity started shooting at him. He dives behind cover as soon as it happens, but some shots still hit him, though none penetrate his shields, much to my relief.

With the 'death' of the armature, suddenly the tides have changed. With the armature no longer there to pin us down, we can finally push them back. Anything more dangerous than a regular trooper was constantly under heavy sniper fire, not leaving them much to deal with us.

Several salarians charged out of cover while the rest covered them with suppressive fire. I do the same, jump out of my cover and sprint as fast as I can over to the wall, quickly follow by more salarians. I fire as I run, not really caring about accuracy at the moment. All I want is to keep them from shooting me, and I partially accomplish exactly that. A few shots are still shot at me, but most of them miss and those that don't harmlessly stop on my shield.

I have to admit that it's still freaking me out to see freaking bullets – even grain-sized ones – break upon hitting the air in front of my face. That one nearly gave me a heart attack.

I reach the wall with just twenty percent of my shields intact. I don't really stop before leaning on the wall and I just end up crashing against it, not that it really hurt me, since my armor pretty much softened the whole impact. I look up to see if any of those who tried to shoot me might want to finish me off and lo and behold, one geth is leaning over the edge to look at me. I raise my weapon to shoot but before I could do anything, the geth disappears over the edge, leaving a small trail of white liquid as it's head was shot off. _"I've got you covered,"_ the voice of Riley came over the speakers.

"I can see that," I reply with a small smile. I look over at the gate, where the salarians were grouping and I run over to them. Oddly enough, we were safe here, right under their noses. A couple of salarians kept chucking grenades over the wall and the rest were shooting at any geth that avoided getting shot by our snipers.

Once I get closer I can see that the one in the middle of the salarian throng is Kirrahe. I'm honestly not that good at recognizing salarians – mostly because I can only do it by seeing the color of their skin, or maybe those horn-thingies they have – but Kirrahe is easy to spot simply because Ashley is standing right beside him.

Good. Everyone is fine for now. Once I'm closer I can see what they're doing, and immediately I stop and take a few steps back. Rigging up explosives sounds like something dangerous. I know that the STG are professionals, but damn, it's freaking explosives. You don't fuck with them.

"Everyone stand back!" Kirrahe yells and everyone does exactly that. I have to wonder how they're going to blow the door up, because it's pretty thick. I get my answer a couple of seconds later when the explosion raises an enormous cloud of sand. It's not a big 'boom' like someone might expect from an explosion. It was more like a 'whoompf!' and it was slightly muted and not that loud as far as I'm concerned.

Once the sand settles down I can see a circular hole in the door, with the edges all burnt and dented. By the nine hells! The door is like... half a meter thick! These are some serious explosives right there! The salarians pour into the hole... and quickly run back out, minus one salarian. What? Why... what the hell? "Juggernaut!" one of the returning salarian shouts.

"Leave it to me!" Doug yells once he gets close enough, brandishing Julia the rocket-launcher. The salarians move out of his way and Doug simply walks into the opened path and shoots out a rocket. "Oh shit! Incoming!" he suddenly yells and moves out of the way, and not a moment too soon, because a second later the juggernaut comes rushing through the hole. When you think about it, it was probably the stupidest thing a geth could do. We're heavily armed, and it's just a single juggernaut against all of us.

Then again... the things have a shitload of shields, which is why when the thing came out and we all opened fire at it, it simply didn't give a fuck. It backhanded an unlucky salarian hard enough to send him sailing through the air to land on the send with his neck bent in a very awkward angle. Without sending the body another look, the geth juggernaut turned around to the closest salarian, this time raising the weapon in it's large hands.

By the nine fucking hells! I've dealt with one back on Feros, and this thing needs to die _fast_. "Overload the shields!" I scream frantically as I launch my own overload. The juggernaut, at always, doesn't give a damn about the series of overloads that hit it. Instead it just shoots another salarian at point blank.

By this time, Doug reloaded his launcher and shoots another rocket. This seems to finish the job, because then our rounds stop hitting the shields and instead start hitting the thing's thick armor. The juggernaut whirls around at Doug but before it could actually do anything a series of sniper shots hit it directly in the 'eye' and it finally collapses to the ground.

Barely twenty seconds passed and we have two salarians dead. Just fucking great.

Kirrahe doesn't look that pleased either. He wordlessly charges inside, quickly followed by Ash and the rest of their team. We follow right behind them.

Immediately, mass accelerator rounds start flying around us and the whole scenery changes. We're no longer on the beach, there's no sand and instead, there's metallic plates that serve as a floor and in front of us is Saren's facility... or at least the entrance to it. The place is rather big.

I can immediately see the tactic we're employing. I actually wrote an essay about it back in high-school. Well, it's not the same thing but technically, it's very similar. We're using the motherfucking Blitzkrieg!

The lead geth barely have much time to react before it's peppered by bullets from Kirrahe's pistol and the one next to it suffers a headshot from Ashley's rifle. The geth manage to react in time, start shooting at us but it's simply not enough. My shields take a few shots but it's not enough to take them down. I shoot down the closest geth while the rest of the salarians shoot down any other geth they can find. We simply ran in, didn't give them enough time to retaliate and shot everyone down. Classic Blitzkrieg tactic!

We're finishing down the last geth unit when Kirrahe and his team, or what remained of it, went over to the door to hack it open. Our snipers in the meanwhile decided to catch up with us, most of them switching to their secondary weapons.

About a minute later, the door is opened and we're pouring inside. We run through the corridors of the facility and much to my relief, we're not encountering much resistance. We're not stopping for anything, as far as I'm concerned. Once a geth pops up, we simply shoot it down without stopping and once it's down, we continue on our path. Our destination is clear and close: the AA gun controls.

I honestly hope that we dealt with the most of their defenses but my rational mind keeps telling me that it's not the case. Just the fact that I'm responsible for adding three additional people to this assault is not enough to change everything. The salarians were pinned down after they shut down the AA gun... and I'm betting that we're not yet there for them to try to simply overrun us. For now we're just a... big annoyance that haven't got anywhere crucial yet. Keyword is yet.

Since we got into their base, we've been tearing them apart. From what I can see, Kirrahe is making sure we stay away from the depths of the base and instead he's making a beeline to the gun controls. We don't want to get anywhere close to Shepard yet... unless the reason why we're facing less geth is the fact that she decided to draw on herself some of the defense. Either way, we don't encounter any considerable defense. Perhaps a couple or a trio of geth in one corridor or another, but we've easily taken care of them.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, we've reached our destination. Kirrahe's hackers went immediately to work on the locked door while the captain turned around to look at us. "Beyond this door are the gun-controls. Expect heavy resistance. We got far, farther than I expected we would. I know some of you are tired, that some of you are wounded," he glances at those suffering minor damage, but still able to fight. "I can understand you. What we did here went beyond our mission parameter, and I am proud of each and one of you for doing this. But we need one more push. One more push, and we can put a massive dent into Saren's plans."

"Captain," one of the hacker salarians says, making Kirrahe pause. He gestured at the door. "we're ready."

Kirrahe nods at that. "Looks like our time is up. Let's show them what the STG is capable of," he says, bringing up his pistol.

I look at Ash, who is doing them same. She looks up at me, as if sensing my look. "You ready?" I ask with a half grin. This is definitely the most crazy shit I've ever been to. Most of the firefights I've been in we're just small skirmishes in warehouses, fighting some geth on small areas and some other weird creatures like plant zombies and sentient bugs. This is a full-scale assault, and it's utterly crazy.

I can literally feel her grin back at me. "More than ever," she replies and once again I have to lament the fact that mass accelerator guns have no need to be reloaded – yet – and that it can't produce the classical '_cha-chik_' sound when you cock it, because I'm pretty sure that she would've done exactly that to emphasize her point. Hell, I would've done the same!

Instead I simply raise my rifle and place it into my hands. "Hell yeah. Let's do this!" I say with a grin, looking back at Doug and Riley. We're totally going to kick ass.

Finally, with everyone prepared, we gather at the door. My heart's pounding at my ears, so fast it's almost deafening. The moment this door opens, I know for sure that shit will get real. And then... the door opens and we run outside.

A split second after I cross the threshold, the salarian in front of me jerks back and drops down, and something green splatters across my visor. Jesus fucking Christ! I jump out of the way of the falling salarian, letting him drop to the floor behind me. I... I can't stop for anything at this moment. There is a strict rule when you're in the same situation as I am in: run like hell and get into fucking cover. And we do exactly that.

The whole place is quite open. I can see the sea on the other side, the _massive_ cannon above us, and the shitload of geth that are shooting at us. Yeah, things will get pretty intense here.

I quickly go to the left, where the platform to the upper level is, and dive to the floor to take cover behind the rail. A couple of salarians and Doug quickly join me. The others decide to take cover behind some crates or the parallel platform to the right of the doorway. I quickly use the time I earned to survey the area. Okay, lot's of regular geth troopers, a couple of snipers and several rocket troopers. We've lost two more salarians when we rushed out – which reminds me to wipe the salarian blood off my visor to clear up my vision – so overall it has the chance to be an even fight. All of us are in cover right now, same with the geth, so now it's all about who can kill the other faster.

Well, that's sort of our specialty. I rise out of cover and pick a geth unit that was shooting at the other on the other side, completely ignoring me. Well, good for me. I shoot out in bursts, managing to get most rounds into the geth until he finally drops down. By that time the other units started shooting back at me, which means it's a pretty good time to get back behind cover. I glance at the corner of my HUD to see my shield meter at forty percent. Okay, it gets filled and it's back to shooting.

Doug and the salarians are doing the same, trading shots with the geth. So far we have one big advantage here. According to what Tali told me, the geth get dumber the less geth are around, so considering that, the more we kill, the less difficult this situation will be. Unless I'm being totally wrong here, which will definitely suck.

Several geth platforms decide to flank us and move over to us, ducking behind the rails of the upper level. We can't shoot them from where we are, but if we move to their level, we can easily deal with them. I do exactly that. I run up the platform and sprint as quickly as I can to the large crate up there. The geth open fire once I'm in the open, but my shields finally collapse from the onslaught, though thankfully it still manages to soak up all the damage. With the geth concentrating on me, Doug and another salarian stand up and pepper them with gunfire.

On the other side Kirrahe and Ash do the same thing, trying to rob the geth from their upper ground advantage. The geth decide that shooting at the handful of salarians that are hiding behind the crates is not a good idea if they're going to be overrun by us from the sides, and they move to intercept.

I wait until my shields recharge in a painfully slow manner, and when they finally do, I take a long calming breath to prepare for what I have in mind. It's time to run and gun.

I charge out of cover, my head kept low and weapon held in front of me, and run to the next piece of cover, another crate about five meters ahead. In the way I have a single geth unit and three more behind it. Well, it's not like I actually need to aim this time. I pull the trigger and spray the geth in front of me with everything I have, and once the geth drops down I don't stop firing, merely shifting slightly my aim to fire at the other ones. This actually proves to be the best thing that could happen, because my wild and inaccurate firing got them to duck back into cover – which happens to be the other side of the crate I'm planning to hide behind – and not fire at me.

"Fire in the hole!" Doug shouts behind me just as I dive to my new cover. A grenade flies over my shoulder and disappears behind the crate. A second later, an explosion is heard, the crate rocks from the shockwave and I see a couple pieces of geth fly in several directions.

I take the opportunity to glance at the other side to see that Kirrahe has everything under control. There are less geth on their side and I can't see the rocket troopers anywhere. Same with the snipers. I turn my attention back to my side and pick a new target. A lone geth, pinning down one of the salarians behind me. That won't do. I move out of cover and shoot him in full-auto again. The rifle can shoot accurately for a second or so before the heat would make it lose the accuracy, but that's more than enough for me. Several rounds in the torso make it stop firing and the final round into it's head finally bring it down.

I survey the area again, planning on picking another geth to take down when an oddly familiar sound reaches my ears over the gunshots. Like some... weak engines or something. A split second later I recognize it. Drones. I look up to see several rocket drones fly over Kirrage's position and I immediately take aim and pull the trigger.

Or I would've, if I didn't hear the almost panicked scream behind me. "Get down!" What? What's hap- my thoughts are interrupted when something heavy slams into my back, actually lifting me off the ground, and not a second later, something else slams into my back, knocking all the air I had in my lungs and completely deafens me. Through blurry vision I see myself sailing through the air – for some reason everything seemed to be brighter – and then I hit the railing with my legs and from there I tumble down to the lower level.

I land on my back, with it sending nauseating waves of pain through my body and I blink several times to clear away the blurriness from my eyes. The sounds of battle are drowned out, almost muffled by this odd ringing noise in my ears, which also hurt for some unexplained reason. Actually, my whole head is throbbing in pain.

A salarian – I'm pretty sure it is one, judging by the shape of the head – comes into my view and a second later I feel myself being dragged on the ground, presumably to cover.

What the fuck happened? One moment I'm up there and the next I hear Doug-

My track of thoughts comes to complete halt. Where the fuck is Doug? I look up to where I was not a moment earlier to see the rising smoke and the scorched wall. My recovering head managed to do the math. I saw rocket drones not a second before everything happened so...

No.

"Doug!" I yell, hoping to hear him yell something smug in response. But there's no response. A figure runs over to hastily lean over the railing to look down at me, and for a second I feel relief until I can make out the details of the figure, to see that it was one of the salarians that was with us. He doesn't look good. The whole left side of his face is blackened and covered by green blood, and he looks down at me with frantic worry, at least until he sees that I'm alive, before he's forced to disappear back behind the rails when gunfire starts flying too close to him. But I don't really care. It's not Doug.

No. Goddammit,_ no!_ That's _not_ how it was supposed to be. No, no, no...

With much difficulty, I turn my eyes, painfully slow, to look at the upper right corner of my HUD. Right beneath the bright green tag of Sgt. S. Riley, there was the red tag of PFC D. Stanford. I already know what the red color means, but as if my mind needs proof to what it already knows, my eyes focus on the three small letters written beneath his name, glaring at me with unusual clarity:

KIA.

Doug is dead.

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><p><strong>Well... it's not exactly the happiest note to end the chapter with.<strong>

**Sigh. Well, next chapter should be ready next week. It's new year's holiday, and I'll have several days off, so I could actually spend some time properly writing. So it should be done by the new year... or slightly after it. Next chapter should deal with the whole point of the mission. The choise that Shepard will have to make. Heh, let me know who you think will die... or perhaps, who you _want_ to die, because I know that some people always wanted to kill _both_ Kaidan and Ashley, not only one of them.**

**On a happier note... Merry Christmas, and a happy new year, in case I don't manage to post a new chapter before it starts! It's already chapter 41! I'm honestly shocked. How long has it been since I started this story? 9 months ago? That's so freaking long! And some of you guys have been here since day 1! And since day one, I've been only getting positive feedback and lots of support from you people! For that, I am eternally grateful. Nowadays, I wake up and check out me email, and everyday, I see 2-3 favs and alerts to this story. This means that every day, 2-3 readers enjoy my story enough to fav it... and this makes me feel epically awesome! So once again, thank you for reading this story, feel free to comment and tell me whatever you thought about the story! You people are exclusively awesome. None can be more awesome than you guys!**

**Until next time, Delvaro out!**


	42. Chapter 42

**Aww, yeah! I'm back! First of all... sorry for the damn long wait! It's been... what, nearly a month? Yep. Sorry again. RL has a tendency of kidney punching me. At least this time it wasnt that bad. Honestly, most of the delay have been because I neglected writing most of the time. Not that it's entirely my fault. My uncle just HAD to buy me Assassin's Creed 3 and I finally got myself the latest Hitman game. Yeah, this month was kinda the Assassin's Month for me. Yeah, was playing two awesome games instead of writing THIS story, since I've also been working on another project of mine, instead of this. Good for me. Sorry for the long wait though, really. Oh, and before I forget... Happy new year everyone! I'm late, but who cares! May you have an awesome 2013th year!  
><strong>

**Back to topic... it took me ages to finish this chapter. I've been working on it since Tuesday. I've rewritten it twice! For some reason the final result was no to my liking, and I rewrote a lot of the parts I wrote. Thankfully, this final product is... acceptable for me.**

**On another note, as requested by that author... I read his story, and I liked it! Thus, I'll tell you to read his story too if you want to, because I don't think you'll regret it! It's still short, but give it some time! It has potential to be something truly awesome! Check out ASSAULTIER's Be Careful What You Wish For.**

* * *

><p>"Fuck, fuck fuck!" I mutter to myself, tearing my eyes away from the roster. God-fucking-dammit! I... I can't fucking believe this. Doug is... just like that! One second he's there, yelling at me, and then... he's not. He just... died.<p>

I lean on the crate I'm using as cover to catch my breath, my heart still hammering in my chest. I didn't really knew Doug that much but he was a friend, even if he wasn't a close one. I'm just shocked that just like that... he's gone.

"_Doug..."_ my second squadmate gasps through the comm.

Riley. Shit, I have no idea what she's feeling about this right now. They've known eachother for much longer than I knew him. Goddammit! This wasn't supposed to happen! This – this is not how I planned this mission! Fuck!

Doug is dead because of me.

And just like that, confusion and shock were suddenly and without warning replaced with anger. Anger at myself for causing this fuck up, anger at the damn geth who just had to send those rocket drones. There was only one thing I could do about this. Kill them all until there are no geth left.

I get up to my feet, intent on shooting the closest thing to me, but a sudden wave of dizziness hits me, nearly making me fall down. I must've landed a bit rougher than I thought... or it might have been the close proximity to the explosion. Either way, my whole head is messed up. My vision swims around, sometimes even doubles, but to my relief it's slowly stabilizing.

I look around, mostly up into the sky in the search of any more rocket drones. I'm not going to let anymore of our group to die like that. Most of the drones were already taken care off and only a couple were left roaming above us, as if stuck between the decision of trying – and probably failing – to kill us all or to simply retreat. Either way, not like I'm going to let them do either.

I raise my rifle and aim at one of the drones and fire. The recoil is a bit rough on me, probably because of my still slightly spinning head, which causes me to mostly miss but after a second or so I finally get the rifle back under my control. One of the rounds I fire finally hits something important and with a small explosion, the drones plummets down like a rock. I shift my aim to the second one but to my disappointment, someone already took care of it. Alright, next target then.

There are few geth left and to my frustration I don't manage to take out any of them.

And just like that, the battle ends. It's almost surreal to me. One second gunshots and the occasional explosion are filling my ears and all my other senses and now... there's nothing but the wind and the voices of the salarians. Either way, we have the gun controls. Our main objective is complete, despite our losses. I look at the salarians, at least the ones in my line of sight. Not a lot of them left. At least half of our initial force is gone. Kirrahe calls us to regroup and I do just that, but unlike the other salarians I don't run over to him. I just don't have anything left in me to do that. I'm just... tired of this.

Everyone knew the risks of going with this plan, knew that this was borderline suicide mission. But that doesn't stop me from knowing the fact that Doug is dead because of me. I asked Shepard for reinforcements. She gave me Doug and Riley. Without me being involved in this, Doug wouldn't be here, and he would still be alive. God, I fucked this up so much...

I finally reach Kirrahe and I see that nearly everyone looks as bad, if not worse than me. Kirrahe sports a bloody hip and he's limping slightly. The other salarians are suffering the same amount of damage – nothing serious, mostly just scratches and maybe a minor wound – but overall, we're still combat-ready. The only one who looks relatively unscathed is Ashley, other than some dirt and some geth 'blood' splattered on the front of her armor.

Without any warning, I feel something hit me on the back of my should and I spin around, only to see Riley. "What the fuck happened?" her voice is cold. Even. I felt a shiver travel down my spine.

I want to say so many things. To say that I'm sorry, to say that it's my fault... but the only thing that comes out of my mouth is a tired, short response. "Rocket drone."

She just stares at me for an agonizingly long moment. With the polarized visor of her helmet, I can't see her face, but I'm willing to bet that it's probably filled with anger... perhaps even hatred. Then, without saying another word, Riley moves past me and walk off over to Kirrahe.

That, I think, was a lot worse than I expected from her.

With another sigh I turn to Kirrahe, who stands before the gun controls, looking into his omni-tool. Then, his omni-tool blipped and a very pleased look crossed over his face before he turned to the gun controls.

"Good work on the gun, Shadow Team. Now it's our turn," he says, obviously speaking to Shepard. He presses a few buttons and the console shuts down. Then, he turns to us. "Our objective is complete. Now, we only need to regroup with Shadow Team. It won't be easy, but we're almost done. Now let's move out."

With that, our ragged forces move out. We don't have much more to go through. We're almost there and it only makes me feel worse. Soon enough... we're going to encounter what initially forced Shepard to make a choice: if things were going the same way they did as in the game, we're going to get pinned down.

From what I can see, we're in the edge of the base. Right where it meets the sea. Shockingly, the resistance we meet is minimal. The most we encounter are a couple of shock troopers, which are quickly disposed of.

With our losses, there's no longer any sense to have any teams, or more accurately, not enough men, so we're all together now. I'm running directly behind Riley, who switched her sniper rifle for her pistol. Kirrahe is expertly ignoring his leg wound, showing just the slightest of limps, despite the fact that the wound was rather painful looking. Not just looking painful, I knew that it was painful, considering I suffered a similar wound back on the Citadel. My respect for Kirrahe just went up a notch, just for that legendary pain tolerance he's showing us.

And then... we finally reach a spot that made me shiver. I don't remember the game that well, after all I played it several years ago, but this place reminds me of the place Kirrahe's team get stuck in. And if it's not that place, it still makes me incredibly nervous. Many crates litter the place, providing us ample cover – if that's not a giveaway, I don't know what it is – and there aren't many place to go to other than forward or backwards. There's a higher level on both sides of the passage, with a bridge like construct connecting them both.

I don't know. Maybe it's my tactical mind showing itself, maybe it's my paranoia, but this place looks like it easily could become a slaughterhouse for us. They had elevator positions, a good view on us from almost every side, and we had only two directions to travel to, and both were equally open. I'm not the only one who notices this either. The ones at the lead visibly slow down, almost to walking speed as they look around suspiciously.

Then, without any warning beforehand, with a metallic ruckus something pops out above us. My blood chills at what I saw on both sides of the bridge. It's rather big – around the size of a big person, maybe even a krogan – metallic and at first I honestly had no idea what it was, but then I notice the large barrel-like thing on the front, pointed in our direction. And then I realized that those barrel-like things were exactly that. My mind managed to put things together. It was a large, three-barreled turret.

_What the flying fuck?!_

This can't be fucking happening! Where the fuck did these turrets come from!? They weren't in the game! They were not in _any_ of the games! Yeah, there were the big ones that shot rockets, but this is definitely _not_ those things! And by the Nine fucking Hells, these things are pointing at _us._

Aww, shit.

Several geth platforms stand up from behind cover, weapons already primed and ready. A second glance tells me they are snipers. Without waiting for us to properly take cover, since by now every one is scrambling for cover, they open fire.

Something hits me in the chest, painfully. I immediately knows that it's definitely not a bullet, because I know what a bullet feels like. It felt more like getting hit with something blunt... in a very painful manner. But the fact is that I was still shot, considering my shields are gone. And then Riley, who was in front of me, crashes into me. For a second, I have no idea what's going on. I can't shoot back, because for some reason Riley simply falls over at me, forcing me to catch her. Her pistol clatters to the floor and I see her holding her neck. Again, I have no idea what's going on. Since Riley refuses to get up for some reason, and we're being shot at – I'm thankful to whatever force that is guiding the universe that the turrets didn't open fire yet, but the barrels were already spinning, so I don't have much time left – it's up to me to get us to cover.

And then I take a glance at her neck and once again, my blood chills at what I see and I almost stop right there. Blood. Not just some blood, I've seen blood before, and quite a lot of it by now, but this... Riley's holding her neck, clutching it visible desperation and blood is gushing out from between her finger, spilling out with frightening speed, like some demented fountain.

The pain in my chest forgotten, I quickly drag her behind the closest crate and lay her on the groud before I quickly fall on my knees to try and do something about this wound. Her breathing is erratic, her chest rising and falling several times in a second, and blood is starting to pool around her head. Goddammit, fuck! What the fuck do I do!? I have no idea what to do, just whatever I saw on TV! Okay, okay... stopping the bleeding! I remove her hands from her neck – they were basically dead weight by now – and quickly place my own hands over the wound, a gash on the side of her neck. I can feel the heat of the blood through my gloves, in fact, my hands are completely covered by blood right now. Fuck, it's not helping! She's still bleeding too fast! What do – medigel! A quick application of medigel later and to my relief, the bleeding lessens by quite a bit, but doesn't stop.

Shit... I have no idea how to stop it. I need someone who knows what he's doing. "Medic!" I scream, desperately, still holding her wound shut. Not that it helps. Blood is still leaking through. "Medic!" I yell again, this time with more panic.

A salarian slides down beside me and quickly takes over, quickly pushing me away to make some room for himself. He reaches to one of his belt pouches and pulls out a roll of bandages. With another application of medigel he removes my hands and quickly wraps her neck. "I'll handle it from here!" he says with urgency and it takes me a couple of seconds to realize he's speaking to me.

I lean against the crate and try to even out my breathing, staring at my blood-soaked hands. Riley's blood. I glance at the woman, with some relief seeing that her chest is still rising and falling. The salarian medic injects something into her neck and reaches into his pouch again for something else, but I turn away at that point to stare at my hands. They're shaking. Shaking like never before. I quickly wipe the blood, on whatever I could. On my legs, on the floor, on the crate. Anything, just to get the blood off from my hands. A pang of pain in my chest makes me look at my breastplate, where I was shot. There's a small hole there, where I can see a small piece of metal lodged inside, and a large series of cracks originating from it, going over a large majority of my left breastplate.

Ah, I see now. The thing with sniper rifles, and what makes them so dangerous, is that the projectiles they launch travel much faster than a regular mass accelerator, but not by that much. What makes them powerful is the fact that the small round they launch is much, much larger than what is shot by an assault rifle, for example. This is why most rifles are single-shot, because shooting such a large round causes some serious overheating problems. A bit more powerful than that, and the recoil would render the rifle unusable. Most shield modules are simply incapable of stopping such a round. Sadly, the shield modules that we use are not among those. A strong enough rifle is enough to pass through the shields we use without much trouble and sadly, the geth have these rifle. All these facts helped me put together what just happened.

The geth sniper shot Riley, but it missed, at least mostly, perhaps the geth might've been aiming at me, and Riley simply got in the way. It didn't matter now anyway. The round passed through her shields, nicked her neck, then traveled at me and hit my shields, which was just enough to stop it from penetrating my armor. Right where my heart was. Without Riley being in front of me... I'd be dead right now.

It's a weird feeling, honestly. Knowing how close you were to being killed. I'm just feeling numb, whether it's from being nearly killed or because Riley nearly died in my hands, I have no idea. Either way, the feeling's not nice.

Once again, I'm alive because of someone else, and that someone else pays the price in my stead.

That too, doesn't feel very nice.

I grab my rifle, smearing it with blood but I don't care. I just want to get this over with... to get out of here alive. To get everyone out of here. The roar of the turrets is deafening. Shit, that'll be difficult. Several dead salarians, nearly torn apart by the turret, are lying around, making it obvious that we're running out of men able to fight. Fuck. We're... pinned down.

I lean out of cover and I don't have much time before the turret's attention is turned to me. I pick one of the geth on the bridge and fire away. Geth, I learned, are rather fragile. The only thing that makes them difficult to take out are superior shields. The geth disappears behind the rail after a lucky headshot but I'm already taking cover again when the rest of the geth notice me.

Fuck... I need something that's take them out quick. That turret is not helping either. The crate rattles and the noise is deafening. It's almost as if they're hoping to shoot me through the crate and I think that if they'll have enough time, they'll do exactly that.

Okay, time for some explosives. I pull out a grenade and toss it over my crate. I aim at the bridge, but I don't have a clear view, so the chances that I'll miss are bigger than the Citadel. For that reason, I throw another grenade, leaving myself with only one more left. Okay, time to survey the damage I caused. I miss the first explosion, but the second one I can see and to my pleasure, it's up on the bridge. I have no idea if I took anything down with it, but I got them to stop shooting, even for a moment. It's enough for me to pick out another geth, pinning down some of my salarian allies. A quick Overload followed by several bursts is enough to take it out.

With a loud crack and jolt, my rifle suddenly flies out of my hands and I duck behind the crate. I look at where the rifle is lying only to my horror to see a smoking hole in it, with the occasional spark flying out of it.

Shit, there goes my main weapon. This is just fucking great! I pull out my pistol, since it's the only thing I have at this moment. I don't see any rifles lying around, and I don't feel like running out into the open to grab one. Shit. This looks really, really bad. I shoot some of the geth trying to flank me, but other than making them go back behind cover, I don't really accomplish anything. Not that I wanted to do anything other than that. Getting flanked is the last thing I want. Just then, whatever is controlling the universe decides that whatever shit it flung on me is not enough, and that I deserve to have it's large, mocking middle finger too.

"Geth Prime!" I hear a salarian scream with panic.

Yeah, this looks really, really bad. As if these fucking turrets were not enough, now we get a motherfucking geth tank thrown at us too! By the nine fucking hells. I think... I failed. The whole reason why I joined this fucking mission... just failed. We're pinned down. We're not going anywhere soon. Not unless we do something drastic, and sadly, we don't have enough men for that. Fuck, we didn't even get that far from the AA tower! We're not even close to our destination!

Just then, Ashley decides to unknowingly confirm my negative thoughts. The comm. channel to Shepard opens up, and I'm thankful I'm still connected to it. Otherwise I wouldn't hear her calling the Commander.

"_Commander. Can you read me?"_

"_The nuke is almost ready. Get to the rendezvous point, Williams!"_

"_Negative Commander. The geth have us pinned down by the AA tower. We've... taken heavy casualties,"_ Ashley replies, her voice tired and strained. _"we'll never make it to the rendezvous point in time."_

There it is. The confirmation that I failed. It feels almost like someone just shot another sniper round at me. Like another blow to the chest.

"_Get them out of there, Joker. Now!"_

"_Negative Commander, it's too hot! Can't -"_ she's cut off by an explosion going off a bit too close for comfort. "_Can't risk it. We'll hold them off as long as we -"_ another explosion. This geth prime is getting too close to Ashley... I lean out and shoot everything I have at it. It doesn't do anything to it in all honesty, but I get it's attention.

There's a loud rumble, too loud for it to be some random drone. A second later a large geth ship flies overhead. For a second I worry that it's reinforcements but it simply continues on... aw, shit! It's going for Kaidan!

"_Heads up, LT. We've just spotted a troop ship headed to your location,"_ Ashley warns.

"_It's already here!"_ Kaidan replies._ "There's geth pouring out all over the bomb site."_

"_Can you hold them off?"_ Shepard asks, a hint of panic in her voice. I think she already knows, or at least feels what's coming.

"_There's too many. I don't think we can survive until you get here,"_ there's a moment of pause before Kaidan speaks with finality. _"I'm activating the bomb."_

Shit, shit, shit! The choice! Fuck! The thing I tried to avoid is still happening. Fuck!

"_What the hell are you doing, Kaidan?"_ Shepard yells into the comm. She sounds outright enraged at that.

"_I'm just making sure this bomb goes off. No matter what. It's done, Commander. Go get them and get the hell out of here!"_

"_Screw that!"_ Ashley retorts._ "we can handle ourselves, go back and get Alenko!"_ it's a blatant lie... but for some reason, I'm agreeing with Ashley. We got into this mess, and we'll get out. Shepard has a choice... us or Kaidan. Well then, I guess I'll just take the choice away from her, like I first planned.

"Shepard," I speak for the first time in this conversation, and I'm surprised at how hoarse my voice sounds. I open up my omni-tool and find the comm. channel option. "_Get. Kaidan_. We'll hold the fucking line, and we'll get out of here," and with that, I terminate the channel. She can't argue with me now, now can't she?

That's it. It's done. We're on our own. Just us and the shitload of geth. I look over at Ashley, on the other side of the passage, to see her looking back at me. There's no need for words. We both know what we're in. She just gives me a nod, and I return it. There's no need for anything else.

Either way... I'm not planning to die like this. No way if hell. Not like this, hiding behind some crates, surrounded by geth. Fuck it, I'm not planning to die at all! Of course, usually the universe doesn't give a fuck about what we plan, but it's not the point now. The point is that I'm planning on getting us out of this... but I just don't know how.

Death to the front. Death behind us and death to the sides. Death all around us, other than where we hide. Come on, Alex, use that gray matter you call brain! From what I can see, there's aren't that many regular geth platforms left. Maybe just a dozen or so, perhaps left, since my line of sight is rather limited. The geth prime unit is the main problem on the ground. The shields are too tough, but considering every single salarian has an overload on his omni-tool, we can take them out with enough time, time that the turrets are not giving us. So the main problem... is the turrets. We can't take them out because the other geth and the prime won't let us fire on them enough to damage them. Fuck, this is complicated as hell. The only safe way to take out the turrets is to go up there and do it close and personal, and the only way to go up there is to go through the prime and the turret's line of fire. Yeah, my options are crap. Unless... I find some way to bypass the whole lot of them. I need some way to get up there. The upper level is about four meters high. No way for me to get up there, not without a boost... I look around and – yes! To my left, a crate by the wall, high enough to give me a proper boost to reach my destination.

Okay. It's better than nothing. Is the plan I concocted is suicidal? Yep. Is it stupid? Definitely. Do I have another choice? Nope, not unless I can come up with anything else – and I don't have time for that – and the other choice is to die, which is not really a good one, as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, the plan is pure stupidity incarnate. I'm in the middle of the passage. I have about four or five meters between me and the crate, and then I have to climb the crate and _then_ climb the wall. There are so many things that can go wrong in that distance and time, that I don't have enough brainpower to count them all. I do have some parkour skills, but they suck. And with this armor on, they suck even more. I'll be gunned down by the turret or the prime the moment I reach the wall.

But... what other choice to I have? "Ashley!" I yell to get her attention. She looks at me after shooting out at the geth for a couple of seconds. "I need a distraction. A big one!"

"What are you going to do?" she asks.

Well, I'm about to do the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life, that's what I'm going to do. "I need to get there!" I point at the crate. "So cover me!"

"Are you insane?" is her proper reply. Yeah, I'm asking that myself at this very moment.

"You'll get killed!" Kirrahe supplies.

"Just fucking do it!" I yell at her, this time with desperation. She should just fucking do it while I still can convince myself to do this stupid shit! Thankfully, most of the salarians heard our exchange and Ashley relayed my message to everyone else, so in short order. Everyone was ready.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Alright. I can do this. I won't be shot. I'll get up there, and take out the turrets. I can do this. I holster my handgun and get myself ready to run. "Go!" I yell and run as fast as I can towards the crate. At the same time, everyone got out of cover and opened fire at them. For a moment, both turrets turned to face them, but by that time I was halfway to the crate.

I was never physically strong or anything, but the one thing I could take pride in was the fact that I was rather fast. Well, faster than what a guy with asthma should be. I was always small but at least I was fast. Now though, I didn't have asthma and for the first time in year, I was actually in a good physical condition. I was faster than before. Of course, the armor slowed me down, but I was still fast enough to reach the crate by the time the geth took notice of me.

I leap, crash halfway to the top of the crate and heave myself up by the time the bullets start flying. I don't have much of a running start, but it's enough. I stand up and run at the wall, managing to do a couple of steps on the wall to keep the momentum I had. My shields dropped to 50 percent. I reach out and grab the rail and pull myself up with desperation. Shields dropped to 20 percent. I pull myself over the metal handrail and fall to the floor, finally behind cover but not safe just yet. I don't have time to let my shields recharge. The geth know I'm here, and they don't want me here.

I get up, grab my pistol, pull out my knife and sprint over to the turret. Rounds keep flying at me, mostly from the geth platforms, since thankfully the others are keeping the second turret busy. I'm halfway there when suddenly something hits me in the right arm. For a second I don't feel my whole arm arm but a split second later the pain hits me, as if someone stabbed my arm with a hot poker. The way I was hit makes me lose my balance and nearly spin around. Because I try to resist the spinning momentum, it causes me to lose my footing and fall down. I ignore the pain, or at least try to, and roll with my should, managing to retain some of the momentum I had and with a growl and clenched teeth I get back on my feet and continue running.

I'm almost at the turret, and the geth know it too. Much to my surprise, the turret is not automated, for whatever reason which I don't care to find out now, and the geth operator moves away from the turret and reaches for it's rifle. My shields are gone, so if it shoots, I'm dead. More than enough reasons to stop it.

By the time the geth raises it's rifle, I'm already on it. I don't stop, I simply jump on it, tackling it to the ground. Tali told me enough about geth for me to know how to properly beat one in close combat. Getting punched by a metallic hand would be painful, yes, but geth are simply not built for close combat, at least, the regular geth platforms aren't. I land on top of the geth, knocking the rifle out of its hands, leaving it defenseless. With the knife still held in my left hand and stab it in the neck, where a mass of visible wires is seen, and plunge it down to the handle. The white-gray fluid I started calling geth blood came flowing out but the geth wasn't done yet. My other hand, which still managed to hold the pistol by some sheer miracle, I plant into the geth's 'eye' and pull the trigger several times. The geth stops moving beneath me and climb back to my feet, out of breath but not done yet.

One turret down, one more to go. I glance at the turret. Unless I can get _this_ thing to work. It's... well, everything I see on it is in a different language. The screen is filled with random – at least to me – letters, which I can only assume show the status. But overall, I think I can figure this thing out. The turret's metal shield is pinging with every round that hits it, so it's pretty obvious they know I took over one of their main weapons. Not much time to figure it out then. There are two lever, which remind me of a couple of joysticks, and the two buttons on top don't leave much to the imagination. I grab them and turn the turret.

And just in time, considering what I'm seeing. The second turret just about turns in my direction, but I'm faster. I press the two buttons and the turret roars with life and gunfire.

And it's glorious.

High caliber rounds impact the turret's metal frame and it holds... for about three seconds, before the rounds start tearing through the armor and into the geth taking cover behind it. After several seconds under fire, it finally succumbs to the damage and with a fiery explosion vanishes from sight. I let go of the firing buttons but to my confusion, it doesn't stop firing. Well, uh, I'll have to work with that. With the turret firing, it's a bit harder to move it, but I manage. Then something impacts the turret hard enough to shift my aim and I look over the turret to see the prime below me with his full attention to me. If that's the case, I should return the favor!

To his credit, the prime doesn't move aside as the line of the turret's fire got closer to it, instead it decides to keep firing at me. Which is probably the best course of action for it, considering it's rather successful. The screen shows me some warning message each time the turret is hit and I'm finding some difficulty in moving the turret, since each time I'm hit it knocks my aim a bit. But finally, after what feels like an eternal struggle, I finally bring the reticule on the geth prime and finally start dealing some damage. Unfortunately, this only last barely two seconds because when the turret suffers another hit, a red-lettered warning blares on the screen and something that looks suspiciously like an overly-large thermal clip is ejected out of a side port that I haven't noticed until now.

Either I'm out of ammo, which is something I've become very unfamiliar with, or the prime damaged something important. I can't read the shit this thing is displaying, so it might be both. Regardless, I should move the fuck out of the way since smoke is starting to come out of the thing. I abandon the turret just in time to avoid the small explosion.

The loss of the turret doesn't bother me in the slightest. I accomplished what I was after. I got rid of the turret, and lowered the prime's shields. My own replenished shields started to suddenly drop as a couple of geth decided that it was time to get rid of me, now that the turret is out of the picture. Tough luck for them. I duck down behind the handrail and avoid most of the fire. I ready an Overload and wait for my shields to recharge. Once they do, I stand up and take aim. The lead geth eats my Overload and then drops down from a couple of well placed shot. The second one manages to land some good hits on me, but it's not enough to get rid of my own shields. I pull the trigger as fast as I can but before I can finish it off, steam starts going out of the pistol. Fucking overheating! This leaves me with the most inappropriate weapon in this situation: my knife. I drop my pistol and switch hands, taking the knife with my right hand, my dominant hand, and grab it by the blade. I asked Ashley for some tips in knife throwing and I did get some practice on it but admittedly, I still sucked 70 percent of the time, not that it mattered here. It was a delaying tactic, nothing more. I throw the knife at the geth.

And with a loud _thunk_ coupled with the noise of tearing metal, the knife lands right in the middle of the geth's torso. I stare at it, my hand still outstretched in front of me. The geth unit looks down at the knife handle sticking out of it's chest, as if surprised that I landed it too. Then it simply raises it's weapon and continues shooting.

I didn't accomplish anything by that, but by the gods, that looked fucking awesome. I duck down and grab the pistol, which cooled down by now, and stand back up, weapon ready. I unload three more shots into the geth, now unprotected by kinetic barriers, and it's enough to finally bring it down.

Now, back to the prime. I look over the rail to see that the prime turned it's attention back to the main force, and it was obviously losing. Might as well add some damage. I take out my last grenade and hurl it at the prime. It explodes a second later, causing it to go off balance and gives more time for Ashley and the salarians to shoot before they have to go behind cover. I take aim with my pistol and just keep pulling the trigger.

While the regular platforms were fragile, the same couldnt be said about primes. They were the epitome of geth platforms. The most powerful kinetic barriers coupled with the strongest armor. We took care of the shields already, but even the armor has to give way at some point. And finally, after what seems like hours, the primes armor finally fails it and our rounds start damaging important things and not long after, the prime lets out a final mechanical roar before it explodes, dropping down to the floor as a flaming wreck.

It takes me a moment, an unnaturally long moment to realize that I'm not being shot at and that there are no more geth to shoot. Everyone else seems to notice it too as they get out of their cover and look around. There's... no one other than us. One of the remaining salarians lets out a cheer. Another salarian quickly follows suit. Ashley loudly remarks how we kicked their asses.

Holy shit. By the nine goddamned hells, I can't fucking believe this. We... we did it! We fucking did it! We won! We're no longer pinned down! We can get to the rendezvous point! Holy fucking crap! I think I saved Kaiden _and_ Ashley! Haha!

My arm causes me to wince and I look at my right arm. There's a hole in the armor, right in the bicep and some blood is leaking through. Shit, now that I look at it, it fucking hurts! I apply my last application of medigel on the wound, sighing in relief as the pain lessens. Bah! Fuck this wound, Chakwas can take care of it in no time once I get back on the ship! This is a fucking victory for more than one reason!

I look down at Ashley below me. She took off her helmet and I can see her grinning at me, though it was a bit strained, letting the exhaustion show through, but the relief on her face was as clear as the day. We survived. Fuck yeah! Relief, exhaustion and elation fills me. I did it. I changed something important. Sadly the elation I feel doesn't last.

I catch sight of Ashley's expression. How it slowly morphed from that cocky grin of her into one filled with horror and shock. How she stopped looking at me and looks at something beside me, or rather, behind me. A shiver travels down my spine and I quickly turn around.

To look right into the face of Saren Arterius.

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><p><strong>Aww, shit. Yeah, that's not going to end well, don't you think?<strong>

**Well, once again, the chapter is ending where I originally didn't plan on, but come on! Don't tell me that the way I ended this chapter wasnt effective. Sure as hell was! Either way, Virmire will really end next chapter. I'm already frustrating myself with how long I'm drawing this out. Worry not. It will end soon! Promise! Oh, and sorry for the cliffhanger. I hate them myself, but what can you do when a cliffhanger that awesome is available for you?**

**Well, I finally got this chapter out. It's a bit longer than the last ones, which gives me some satisfaction. Now, I have no idea when the next chapter would come out. I'll try to finish it soon, but I warn you in advance... if I don't finish it by the 5th, I have no idea when I'll finish it, because I'll be busy playing Dragonborn... you know, Skyrim's new DLC. Been waiting for that thing for ages! So... let's hope I won't have a bad case of lazy and I'll get off my ass and finish Virmire by then.**

**Now, thank you all for reading! I'm freaking gleeful everytime I see someone new reviewing, or just faving or alerting this story! You guys keep growing bigger and bigger! Soon enough, I'll have my own army of minio - err, fans! Yeah, let's go with that. So... thanks for reading! Glad you all enjoy this story and keep reviewing! Love reading your input, opinions and suggestions. Feel free to continue doing it! Until next time, Delvaro out!**


	43. Chapter 43

**Hello my lovely, cute minions! I am back!**

**With a brand new chapter. To be honest, a lot has happened during this time**

**! I'll begin with the awesome, yet not-that-awesome-news! Remember that lovely maiden I complained about some... months ago? The one that kinda friendzoned me... but didn't? Yeah. That one. Anyway... her boyfriend left her! So... awesome. Yes. I'm a bad person, I'm pretty aware of this. I had to fight down the urge to smile when I first heard of this. Anyway, ****so now I am once again in pursuit of the lovely maiden! Sadly, this time... the whole male populance of the store is aware of this... and I have competition. Like two days ago. Store's birthday, huge party... and this... _LEECH_ who didnt leave her side even for one second! Aaargh! Not to mention the fact that I had a killer hangover yesterday. At least she found my drunk self funny. That's a good thing. Either way, we kinda had a "date-thingy" scheduled for the day after tomorrow, but it kinda didnt work out, due to her having work that day. ****Either way, I found out that she's a monster of a pool player... and - I'm going out of my way to say this, since it'll make me look like an asshole - that she has a mighty fine arse! Note: imagine that I said it with a scottish accent.**

**Anyway, the reason why I'm saying this... what the hell do I do?! With the competition I have, I have a very tough road ahead of me. At least I'm ahead of everyone, so far. How do I win the fair maiden's heart?**

**Back to topic... this is the final chapter of the Virmire mission! Yay! I can't believe that it's finally OVER! It seems like ages since I first started writing this mission, but thankfully, it's finally OVER. Yeaaaaah! Now, I'm not going to delay you any further... so enjoy the brand new chapter!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Saren. Saren fucking Arterius. And he's standing right in front of me. Yeah. I'm screwed.<p>

For a second, I reach for my knife, but then remember that the knife is stuck in that dead geth, which is too far away from me. So I raise my pistol. Not a lot of good that does. Before I can even raise my arm anywhere close to point the pistol at Saren, something blue slams into my chest with the force of a goddamned bus, and the next thing I know, Saren is getting farther and farther away from me for some reason.

Correction: I'm the one getting farther away from him. Also, I'm happening to be falling down to our guys below me. Yep, fun times ahead, that's for sure.

And then I land, and immediately wish I hadn't. My armor is good, but there's only so much that it can handle. Falling from that height is painful as hell! The air is knocked out of my lungs, and I suddenly find myself out of breathe, and in pain. To my horror, I try to draw some air to my lungs, and it utterly fails. The only thing I manage to do is cough erratically, wasting whatever oxygen I have left in my lungs. I don't see what's going on – I can barely make sense of my own HUD – but I do see the general shape of a salarian above me. I feel myself being dragged for a second, and then the salarian jerks and falls on top of me.

I try to move the salarian off of me, but I just can't. I can barely move my arms, let alone lift a salarian. I hear gunshots, but I can't see what's going on. Gradually, the gunfire lessens and my vision clears slightly. Breathing is still problematic, but I take the chance to look around. The salarian on top of me is definitely dead, judging by the neat hole in the side of his head. Fuck. He was just trying to drag me to safety...

Suddenly, the salarian is moved away. Actually kicked away, and then I see Saren standing above me, looking down on me with something akin to... disappointment. "_This_ is what the Council sends after me?" he asks.

I open my mouth, cough once and manage to rasp out a reply. "Fuck... you,"

In response, his foot comes down on my right arm. Right on top of the wound I have there. I can't help it, and I simply scream. Or try to. The only thing that comes out of my mouth is something akin to a hoarse growl. "This is what the Council sends after me?" he repeats. "Salarians that are dead on their feet, and some... some grunts?" he looks down on me with rage. "Where is your great Commander Shepard? Where is the first human Spectre that's supposed to stop me?" he demands, spitting out Shepard's name as if it was something disgusting.

"Why?" I rasp out, coughing again. I grab his leg with my free arm and try to move it, but it's useless. I don't have a weapon, I lost the pistol when I fell, and I'm entirely empty. I can't do a thing to him. "Why do all this? You're... you're a _Spectre! _You're supposed to protect the galaxy!"

"Why?" he repeats my question. "Because it doesn't matter. The Reapers are coming, and there's nothing you, can do to stop them. They will come, and they will win."

I always liked Saren, as far as characters went. He's an utter asshole, and one hell of a bastard, but as far as characters go... he's someone I like. He's the perfect example of someone with a noble goal, but with entirely wrong methods. He wants to save the galaxy but his way of doing it... is completely wrong. Saren saw what opposed the galaxy, and where Shepard would choose to fight back, Saren decided that fighting was futile, and it was better to submit, and serve. That's the main difference between Saren and Shepard.

But right now, it didn't matter. I had more pressing issues to attend, like Saren's fucking foot grinding my fucking arm into dust. But now... it's time to drop the bombshell. "And who is saying that? You? Or the indoctrination?" I growl out at him, trying my best to ignore my wound. Despite the pain, I allow myself to grin in satisfaction when Saren momentarily freezes. Mission accomplished. I planted the doubt into Saren.

"It doesn't matter," he says, a lot quieter than before. "You will lose," and with that, he points his pistol at my head. I freeze in my struggles and look at the pistol. Oh no... no, no, no. He'll... he's going to shoot me. "Either tell me where Shepard is, or die," Shepard is not here... she's saving Kaidan. I... I'm screwed. Saren waits for a couple of seconds before he speaks again. "So be it," he says with some disappointment and the pistols is aimed straight at my face. I can't get away. I just... close my eyes and wait for the shot.

But it never comes. Instead, I hear a loud yell and a second later a shockwave hits me, and suddenly, Saren's foot is no longer on my arm and relief floods me as the pain lessens. I open my eyes to see what the hell is going on, and when I do, my breath hitches.

Commander Shepard is standing above with her back to me, right where Saren used to stand not a moment ago, biotic energy wreathed around her body, flickering violently like bluish-purple flames. Her hair is dancing around her, as if picked up by some unseen wind.

It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

And the most depressing one.

She's here. Which means she's not with Kaidan. Which means that I completely, and utterly failed. Shepard made her choice.

Shepard's unexpected arrival broke the moment completely. Even Saren is looking utterly surprised. But then it quickly ends. Saren flares his own biotics, and Shepard charges into battle. Not a second later, something grabs my shoulder and starts dragging me away. I look up and see white armor, with some pink on it. Ashley. She's still alive. Good.

She quickly drags me behind cover and from there I have a very good view on the battle. And I'm left speechless. The game is restricted to code, and only the cutscenes show true fighting potential... but here... there's nothing of the sort. Before this, I have to admit that I thought Spectres were just highly trained soldiers who simply had more authority. Right now... I'm being proven how wrong I am.

I'm witnessing a battle between two biotic powerhouses.

Shepard charges in, the biotic cloak around her centers around her fists. Saren braces himself for impact. Shepard launches a right hook, but Saren simply leans back and out of the way and quickly counters with a jab to the face. Shepard uses her free hand to deflect the bow higher and ducks in under his arm, keeps moving with her own momentum, and slams her right fist right into his chest.

There's something akin to a biotic explosion when her fist connects with his chest, and Saren is sent flying back, but not that far. He lands on his feet, a bit staggered but not wounded enough to be out of the fight. With an angered growl, he charges right back into the fight. Shepard's more than ready for him. She dodges his swipes, never even bothering to block them. Like water, she weaves herself through his blows, countering whenever she could but never managing to land a hit on him again after than first blow.

Unexpectedly, Saren launches a spinning heel kick, aimed right at Shepard's head. But the Commander has the counter already in motion, dropping down into a sweep kick, intending to swipe Saren's leg right from under him. His spin kick just sails over her head, and her sweep is about to connect with his remaining leg, when he simply jumps up, causing Shepard to miss, and still spinning, cocks his arm back as biotics start gathering in his fist. Shepard is below him, and he's about to land with a vicious punch. She can't block it, and she knows it.

So, unexpectedly, she launches a biotic throw at the floor, and this launches her back and out of range, where she slid across the ground until she stopped. Saren, his attack already in motion, slammed his fist into the ground where Shepard was no a second ago, and with a biotic explosion, the ground literally breaks apart, creating a wide web of cracks. Once the dust settles, Saren gets back up and with a glare that could kill, charges the Commander.

Shepard returns the favor and charges back, but instead of fighting him in hand to hand, she launches a biotic attack at the ground in front of him. Once it connects, the tiles shatter on impact, launching dust and debris into the air in front of Saren. Saren stops to avoid it, and misses Shepard's jump. She jumps over him, literally _flips_ over him, and lands back to back with him. Not waiting for his reaction, she slams her elbow into the back of his head. Saren, despite having suffered a biotic elbow to the head, barely flinches and simply rolls with the momentum of the hit, spinning in place and slamming his own elbow into the side of Shepard's head. Shepard flinches for a second, but that's all Saren needs. He thrusts his arm out, and biotic force slams into Shepard, sending her flying into a wall at breakneck speeds.

And then... I witness the most badass thing in the galaxy. No! The universe!

Saren is about to continue his fight with Shepard, but then I see something big and red, wreathed in biotics coming up from behind him. It takes me a second to recognize what it was. Wrex! He doesn't roar, like some krogan do. He just charges at the turian, biotics flaring around him. But sadly, he's just not silent, and Saren heard him and turned around, just in time to see that it's too late to dodge.

And what happens next, leaves me a state of utter shock.

Wrex executes his usual combo, the shotgun blast followed by the krogan himself. The shotgun blast dissipates harmlessly on Saren's shields, but it doesn't matter, since the krogan is about to crush him. Saren flares his biotic aura and with a roar, simply _grabs_ the krogan by the head-plate and then the jaw, and using the krogan's own momentum, _lifts him up_ _into the air,_ _over his head_, and then slams him into the floor. Saren gets back onto his feet within a moment, breathing heavily and glaring daggers at Shepard.

Oh. My fucking. God. Saren just fucking _suplexed a krogan!_ Holy _fuck!_

If my jaw could physically go any lower, it would be on the floor right now. I take a glance at Ashley to see the same expression on her face. This is fucking unbelievable!

Wrex stirs and climbs back up to his feet with an angered, and slightly dazed, growl. Saren doesn't even spare him a glance. He simply sweeps his hand and a second later, just like with Shepard, Wrex is thrown away from him.

Speaking of Shepard, she stares at Wrex with wide, shocked eyes, and then turns to look at Saren, who is slowly approaching her.

"I applaud you Shepard. My geth were entirely convinced the salarians were the real threat. An impressive diversion," he says, launching a biotic orb, probably a warp, at the women. Shepard jumps out of the way, rolls on the floor and dives behind one of the crates. Saren simply scoffs at that. "Of course, it was all for nothing. I can't let you disrupt what I have accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake here."

Then, bullets start flying at the turian, once again harmlessly breaking on his shield. What the hell is that thing anyway! Saren takes a glance at the salarians, who finally regrouped and decided to open fire, and launches several biotic warps, making them go into cover again,

"Why are you doing this," Shepard asks slowly and calmly, having finally regained some measure of calm.

"You've seen the vision from the beacons, Shepard! You, of all people, should know what the Reapers are capable of! They cannot be stopped. Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice anything for the sake of petty freedoms. The Protheans tried to fight... and they were utterly destroyed," he finishes grimply, slowly pacing out in the open, apparently unconcerned that he's surrounded by us. "Trillions dead. But what if they bowed before their invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

That's arguable. I know what happened to the remaining Protheans... and they're already extinct as far as I'm concerned. If Saren goes through with his plan, the same thing will happen to us. If only I could somehow show it to Saren... he'll realize the truth.

"Do you really think the Reapers will let us live?" Shepard asks incredulously.

"Now you see why I never came forward with this to the Council. We organics are driven by emotion instead of logic. We will fight even when we know we cannot win. But if we work with the Reapers – if we make ourselves useful – think of how many lives would be spared! Once I was understood this, I joined Sovereign, though I was aware of the... dangers. I had hoped this facility could protect me.

"You're afraid Sovereign is influencing you. You're afraid he's controlling your thoughts," Shepard connects the dots.

I laugh at that, catching the attention of Saren, who sends me a glare that makes a shiver travel down my spine. "Commander, I think he's already under Sovereign's control. Just look at all the bullshit he's spouting!" I yell from behind safe cover. Saren gives me a glare but turns back to Shepard.

"I've studied the effects of indoctrination. The more control Sovereign exerts, the less capable the subject becomes. As you can see yourselves, that is my saving grace. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit. My mind is still my own... for now. But the transformation from ally to servant can be subtle. I will not let it happen to me."

"Too late for that! He's already manipulating you, and you don't even see it! Open your damn eyes!" I yell out again, not bothering to look in order to know that Saren is glaring at me.

"No! Sovereign needs me! If I find the Conduit, I've been promised a reprieve from the inevitable. This is my only hope."

"Together we can stop Sovereign. We don't have to submit to the Reapers. We can beat them!" Shepard yells at him.

Saren looks down to the ground for a moment, looking almost remorseful. "I no longer believe that, Shepard," he says sadly. "the visions cannot be denied. The Reapers are too powerful. The only hope we have, is to join with them. Sovereign is a machine. It thinks like a machine. If I can prove my value, I become a resource worth maintaining. There is no other logical conclusion!"

"You were a Spectre! You were sworn to defend the galaxy! And then you broke that vow to save yourself!" Shepard spits out, disgust evident in her voice.

"I'm not doing this for myself! Don't you see? Sovereign will succeed. It is inevitable. My way is the only way any of us will survive. I'm forging an alliance between us and the Reapers. Between organics, and machines. And in doing so, I will save more lives than have ever existed! But you... you would undo my work. You would doom our entire civilization to complete annihilation. And for that... you must die."

With that, Saren pulls out a small, round object and throws it at Shepard. Shepard, to her credit, is ready for that. She moves out of cover, biotic cloak once again covering her, and launches herself at the former Spectre. Whoa, a biotic charge...

Saren flares his own biotic aura but it's not enough to stop Shepard, who clears the distance between them in the blink of an eye. She slams her own body into Saren, but amazingly, the only thing she accomplishes is just to make him stagger back a step or two, and he immediately retaliates with a vicious punch to the side of her head. Shepard loses balance but manages to keep standing, but it's not enough against someone of Saren's caliber. Shepard moves to block the next punch, and does just that, but Saren's vacant arm simply launches a biotic pulse, which once again sends Shepard flying.

Ashley decides to use the opening to open fire at Saren, but once again, his crazy-ass shields prove to be too powerful. The only thing it does is annoy him, as he flings a surprisingly big biotic shockwave at us. Shit! I jump out of cover just as the shockwave hits the crate and causes it to crash into the wall under the force. Wow, if I was still there, that would've crushed me. Either way, the fact that I'm currently out in the open, without a weapon and in front of Saren takes priority. Shepard is getting up, but Saren is looking directly at me. My own eyes land on a rifle, probably belonged to one of the salarians, lying on the floor, just a couple of meters away from me. Can I make it? Either way, gotta try. I run to the gun, but I'm not fast enough. Saren flings a biotic bolt at me, and I just can't dodge it. It hits me and the next thing I know is pain.

Pure, undiluted pain. It's like every millimeter of my skin is being stabbed by white-hot needles, repeatedly, several times a second. I writhe on the ground trying to do... something to lessen the pain, but I can't even think properly. There's only pain. Pain! Pain! Pain! And more pain! And then... it just stops, and I find myself on the floor, shaking violently. My throat aches, as if I just screamed it to pieces, and I think that I did just that. What _the fuck_ was that!? Fuck... I think I finally found out what a warp feels like. My whole body still stings as hell, like hot knives are constantly poking me, but on a much lesser degree than before. I take a look at my arm and I see wisps of biotic energy traveling on it here and there.

And I look at the battle and I see Shepard once again engaging him in close combat. She dodges a swipe that nearly tore off her face, and quickly counters with an uppercut that actually catches Saren by surprise and slips through his defenses. She follows up with another biotic punch but Saren quickly, almost unnaturally so, recovers and catches the fist and yanks her towards himself. Shepard was caught off guard by the move, but raised her other arm, elbow first. Saren at the time raised his knee and slammed it into Shepard's stomach at the same time as her elbow crashed into his face. Both combatants staggered back, but once again, Saren recovered first. And that's when Wrex decided to do his comeback.

Sadly, it didn't work this time either. Saren sees him coming and his biotic aura flares violently. Just as Wrex is about to crash into him, Saren flings his arms outwards with a loud snarl and a large biotic shockwave shoots out of him in all directions, knocking Wrex and the recovered Shepard back. I find myself sliding away from my location on the ground and I feel something hit my chestplate. I look at it, and see the rifle I was trying to reach not a moment ago. Whoa, thank you Saren!

I grab the rifle and quickly stand up. Sadly, Saren sees me and pulls out his pistol and had it raised at the same time as I shoulder the rifle and prepare to shoot. Saren is faster and pulls the trigger.

A gunshot tears through the noise like a hot knife through butter, and suddenly everything is silent. I blink. And then I blink again. I... definitely don't feel like I've been shot. My shields, which were drained by the warp and shockwave are still at 30%. I stare at Saren, who is... definitely not looking at me. I hear something that sounds like a choked gasp, and I look behind me.

Ashley is standing there, rifle raised, but shaking. What grabs my attention is the neat hole, exactly in the middle of her chest... where blood is clearly pouring out. She coughs, an awful-sounding wet cough, and takes a shaky step back. Her rifle clatters to the floor, and a second later she follows it. It's almost in slow motion for me. She tries to take another step back, stumbles and falls back. She lands with a thud... and doesn't move again. I turn back to Saren, to see him holstering his pistol... as if I'm not here, with a weapon aimed at him.

For the first time in a long, long time, I feel rage. I've felt anger, obviously, and I felt very angry on few occasions. Like the earlier confrontation with Wrex. I was angry at Ashley. But this... what I feel now is pure rage. There's only one thing on my mind, and it's to cause as much pain as possible to one Saren Arterius. I'm going to fucking kill him.

For some reason, the fact that I have a weapon in my hands is lost to me, and I toss it aside in favor of my fists. I charge at him with a roar, uncaring that my throat hurt like hell. Uncaring of the muscles that scream at me in protest. I'll fucking kill him with my bare hands. I reach him, and throw a punch into his face. I might have as well tried to punch out a krogan. My punch never even lands. He catches my wrist. I use my other hand, not really caring for any technique. I just want to cause pain. He slaps my second punch away, and I'm fully open for a counter. With the same hand, he slams a punch into my stomach, causing me to fold over his fist and lose all the air I had in my lungs. He lets go of my captured hand and grabs my head. I know what's coming, but I simply can't do anything about it. A knee slams into my head, and I'm very thankful that I'm wearing a helmet. It would've been worse if I hadn't been wearing one, that's for sure.

I fall to the floor, my vision swimming and head aching, and quickly climb back, ignoring how my muscles burned in pain. I launch a kick, but he simply swats it aside, and launches his own attack. I raise my arms to block, but his arm easily slips through the feeble defense I put up, and his hand takes hold of my throat. A second later, I'm lifted up, with one hand. I punch the arm, but it doesn't seem to do anything. His other arm grabs hold of my helmet and a second later, my helmet is yanked off my head. He pulls me closer, looks into my eyes and says a single word. "Pathetic."

My response is quick, and to the point. I spit in his face. Maybe I'll poison the fucker.

Saren stares at me for what feels like an hour, before he pulls me in, and slams his head into my own. I have no idea why everyone is saying that, because what I'm seeing is definitely _not_ starts. Just... a red flash and then lots of pain. Then, I hit the ground as Saren let's me go in favor of defending himself from Shepard.

I'm... spent. I want to, but I can't get up. I look over at Ashley. She's still not moving. A loud noise breaks through all other noises in the area. A mechanical roar that deafens all other sound. Sovereign. The sounds of fighting stops and when I try to find Saren I can't see him anywhere, until I finally spot him above us, back on his hoverboard thing, leaving the site.

"Williams!" I hear Shepard's yell. A second later Shepard comes into view, bruised and battered, though not as much as me. "Wrex! Grab her!" Wrex comes into view and with surprising gentleness picks her up. Shepard runs over to me and grabs my arm and literally drags me to a standing position. "We've got to go! Now!" She picks up my helmet and hands it over to me. I take hold of it with some difficulty. God... my head hurts. The sounds of loud engines makes me look up, at where the Normandy descends down to our location, storage bay doors open and ready to accept us.

"Kaidan?" I rasp out in question, hoping for the impossible.

Shepard freezes, but only for a moment. "Go. Now!" she barks out, giving me a push towards the Normandy.

I look around, seeing the salarians moving to the ship, two of them carrying Riley. Good. Everyone's here. "Where the fuck is Kaidan?" I ask Shepard as I half run, half stumble to the Normandy.

"Come on! Move!" Shepard yells instead, ushering me up the ramp and into the Normandy.

"Didn't you... Shepard!" I yell after her. She doesn't respond. She... she left him. She chose us... when I told her to save him...

Everyone's inside. The Normandy rises up, gradually getting farther and farther away from Saren's base. I stare out at the base, as the doors slowly close shut. With a dull thud, the door seals shut, and a few seconds later, the ship rocks violently as we narrowly escape the explosion that consumes Saren's base.

And Kaidan.

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><p><strong>Well... shit.<strong>

**Once again... I don't end the chapter on a good note. But... I'm finally done with this mission! Only two missions left, and it's the end of Mass Effect 1. And yes. Many people have asked me, so I'm going to answer one more time. Yes. I will continue this story into Mass Effect 2... and then 3. It will probably take me years, but I'll probably do it. Since I'm a lonely, lonely, shy person with a lack of proper social contant, who also happens to be antisocial and a general people hater with too much time on his hands and a deep love for writing. But ignore that last part!**

**Next chapter will deal with the... fallout of the Virmire mission. I... well, I'm actually looking forward to writing it, since it's been on my mind for the past two months and I'm eager to finally get it on paper... or digital paper. Still, I have no idea when I'll finish the next chapter, with the Dragonborn DLC coming out soon, and the new DMC game I've been waiting for, not to mention this other thing I've been working on. I'll finish it once I finish it. Hopefully soon enough.**

**Now... thank you, everyone who read this story! I love you guys. Your support makes me a very happy person. I've even been recognized lately in a review I left for another story! It's surreal. Really, it is. I'm eternally glad that you love this story, and I only wish that you'll keep on reading it! Feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think! Constructive criticism is appreciated, but you can just give me your honest opinion too. Both will suffice! Thanks again for reading, and have fun. Until next time, Delvaro out.**


	44. Chapter 44

**Yeah! I am here! And a lot more early than I expected! A couple of unexpected days off helped me a lot. Now... I don't really have much to say! Yeah, I'm surprised too. This chapter is simply... short. I'm almost ashamed at how short it is. But next chapter will be a bit longer, of that, I'm sure. Meh, got nothing else to say... other than this thing! While I am glad that I have a story image, I'll be pleased if anyone would like to try and make me another one! I don't know... the story grew into something bigger than I expected it to be, and I feel like I need a more interesting image for the story, no offense to the maker of the current image, of course.  
><strong>

**Now, without more delays and ramblings, enjoy the next chapter.  
><strong>

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><p>The door is closed, locked, and not to be opened anytime soon. The metallic thud almost like a signal of finality. The explosion that follows is just something to emphasize the point. Kaidan is dead. Just like that. All the effort I put into this... the stupid plan, the goddamned assault, Doug, Riley and Ash... it still made no difference.<p>

Slowly, I turn around. Garrus and Tali are helping the wounded salarians and Riley into the elevator. Wrex is carrying Ashley. Liara is helping Kirrahe to a more comfortable position, since it appears that his leg finally gave out on him after the long battle. Shepard is barking orders, though it's easily visible that they're halfhearted with her exhaustion.

What did I accomplish this mission? Absolutely. Fucking. Nothing. In fact... I just made things worse! All the anger and frustration I've been holding inside just reached it's peak. "Fuck!" I screamed in rage, throwing my helmet in the general direction of the lockers. This effectively halts any movement in the room as everyone turns to look at me. I don't look at them. I just look at Shepard as I make my way towards her. I stop in front of her and give her my best glare. "_Why?_"

Shepard doesn't even react at the fact that I'm currently glaring at her. "Not Now, Alex," she replies and turns to look at the others. "Why are you still here? Get them to Chakwas! _Now!_" she barks out, and all movement continues. She Turns to follow them but I grab hold of her shoulder to keep her in place.

"Yes, now," I insist. She stops cold at that. Everyone else momentarily pauses, but then they continue moving. Garrus punches the button and the elevator door closes, leaving the two of us alone.

"What?" Shepard grinds out, looking at me with narrowed eyes.

"Why?" I repeat. "I told you to get Kaidan. Why didn't you listen to me?"

"I had a choice, and I made it," is her simple, and infuriating reply. Which finally made snap.

"Well, you fucking should've made a different one! I fucking told you to get Kaidan! We handled ourselves just fine!" I yell in her face. "You should have went after Kaidan, got him out and hauled ass to the Normandy! But you didn't! And now- and now he's fucking dea-" I'm pretty sure I'm not thinking clearly at the moment, and I think Shepard clarified it for me a second later.

I don't have much time to react, and I didn't expect it anyway. One moment I'm yelling at her, and the next I find myself on the floor, holding my face. She... she just fucking punched me! I look up at her to see the most deadly glare I've ever received. She's breathing heavily, look at me with the most anger I've ever witnessed out of her. She looks like she might kill me right here and now.

"Cool the fuck down! I've had a choice. I save Kaidan, or a team of salarians and several of the Normandy's crew. It was one, or the many. I chose to save the many," she says, her voice trembling. It is then that I notice the small details about her. The pain on her face, how her voice trembles or how her eyes are moist... no, she's already crying. I can see the tears from here. Fuck... she and Kaidan were together. God, she must be having it a lot worse than I do, and I blow up like that on her. I just... fuck. I turn away from her and slowly get up, suddenly feeling too tired to properly stand up. Without saying anything else, I turn away from her and make my way to my locker. "Alex," she calls after me, sounding as tired as I am.

"Just... just leave me alone," I say quietly, not stopping or looking at her. She doesn't say anything, but after a couple of seconds I hear her footsteps going toward the elevator. I don't look at her as the elevator finally arrives and when she steps in. I just stand in front of my locker, silently, until I'm left alone. I lean my head against the cold metal surface, letting everything sink in.

I don't know how many salarians Kirrahe had, but it was around twenty. I counted the salarians that came aboard the Normandy, both injured and healthy. Seven in total, including Kirrahe. Riley is fatally wounded as far as I know. A wound to the neck like that isn't something you shrug off. Ashley is... I don't know what she is. She might be dead too. Kaidan was left behind. In total, out of the main assault, only six came back in relative health. With me included. This is a fuck op on such a scale that I cannot find words to describe it.

With a frustrated growl I slam my fist into the locker, and again, and again until I'm left breathless. Great, now my hand hurts. I remove my head off the locker and note with some interest that I left a blood stain on it. I touch my forehead and wince slightly and when I remove the fingers I see them coated in blood. Saren must've busted it up...

I turn around and lean my back against the locker, and allow myself to collapse onto the floor. I've had a fucking plan. I thought it through, and while it was not the best plan... it was a plan. Instead, I just made things worse. I probably killed them both. God-fucking-dammit. I just wanted to help. I wanted to save them both, not force Shepard into making a choice. But then I got both of them killed. Even if Ashley somehow survives this... Kaidan is still dead because... because...

My throat clenches unexpectedly, as if something is stuck in there. My eyes start to sting a bit and a couple of seconds later, to water. I'm beyond caring though. I... I fucking killed Kaidan. And Ashley died because of me. Or came close to it.

It's fucking simple. Because I was pretty much useless in the assault, we got pinned down. Yes, we broke through, but in the end... what did it fucking matter? Saren showed up, and whatever I accomplished until then was rendered useless. My presence did absolutely fucking nothing. Actually, it made everything worse. I couldn't do _shit_ against Saren.

A particular moment replayed itself in my mind. My gun aimed at Saren, a second from shooting him... but Saren shooting Ashley instead. Because... I wasn't a threat to him. I wasn't strong enough to make sure we don't get pinned down. I wasn't strong enough to deal with Saren. And Shepard just had to fucking choose us over Kaidan.

I know that I should be grateful, or something like that, but I just don't feel like it. If Shepard hadn't shown up at that moment, I'd be dead right now. But the epic failure of my plan is just glaring into my plan. I fucked this up so much. I feel angry, disappointed and tired, and most of it at myself.

My omni-tool pings at me, and I halfheartedly look at it. A new message. From the Chairman. Fucking great. I wipe away some of the tears that are still in my eyes and open the message.

_'Well... I don't want to look like an asshole... but who cares? I fucking told you so!_

_I told you not to fucking try to change anything, and you go and do that __**again**__, and where did it get you now? Please, do tell me how your amazing and epic plan worked. You just don't look at the big picture, at what your mere __**presence**__ can do. _

_Without you, everything would've went the same way. The geth would still see Kirrahe and his men as the main threat. But it was just three people, __**three additional soldiers**__ that made them decide to place the turrets there and ambush you. Just because you couldn't sit on your ass and do as you were told. Now tell me, are you fucking happy about the outcome?_

_Next time, when I warn you about something, do take notice that I'm saying it for a fucking reason. I didn't bring you here so you could screw up everything. _

_C'_

Well... my mood just got worse. I quickly press the reply button and type in two words and send it back to him.

'_Fuck you.'_

That should shut the fucker up. And how the fuck did he even know about the turrets? How the fuck does he know about everything I do? Just who the fuck is he? Ugh, fuck him. I don't want to think about that bastard.

Still, what he said got to me. Why the fuck am I here then? Just what are my stakes in this? What the fuck am I doing here? I tried to change something, and it exploded in my face. If not to change something, then what is my purpose here? Can I even change anything worthwhile?

What the fuck am I even doing with Shepard here? I'm the most useless member of the team. I don't bring anything useful into the ship. I have no use outside of battle, and even then, I'm not exactly the best there is. I've just seen that myself not so long ago. Shepard could go toe to toe with Saren, while he threw me around like a ragdoll. Brushed me off like the annoying fly I was. Other than being average in a firefight... I have no purpose here.

My goal is obvious. Help Shepard stop the Reapers. But... does she even _need_ my help? She'll do it either way, with or without me. My knowledge of future events is essentially useless, because I'm in no position to actually do anything about them. Again, in essence, I'm utterly useless besides being a hired gun. So... why the fuck am I here?

God... I need a smoke.

I get up, ignoring my knees when they flair up in pain, and open my locked, noting the dent I put on the door when I punched it. All my stuff is inside and I haven't left anything on the Citadel, not that I actually own anything other than the things I have on me. I rummage through my duffel bag until I find what I'm looking for. My old cigarette pack and my lame plastic lighter. Heh, to think that I didn't smoke for almost a year. How long has it been since I arrived to this place? Eight, nine months? Who the fuck knows. Don't care.

I remove my gloves and toss them to the floor, where they fall down with a relatively wet plop, probably from all the blood they soaked. I place the smoke stick in my mouth and light it up, inhaling the smoke.

Immediately I feel the burn travel down my throat and into my lungs. Out of simple experience I don't start coughing like an idiot, but the burn was something I forgot. I felt it only when I started smoking all those years back. It wasn't really an unwelcome sensation either way, so I took another drag and took back my seat on the floor.

So, to summarize everything, other than being an extra gun, I'm useless to the Normandy. I'm not a powerhouse like Wrex and Shepard. I don't have biotic finesse like Liara, or biotics to begin with. I don't have an amazing accuracy with weapons like Garrus does, nor do I have such a vast mechanical knowledge as Tali does. I don't even have the training Ashley and Kaidan had. I can keep up with them... but only barely. Makes me wonder why the hell Shepard even took up my offer and allowed me to join...

No wonder Saren deemed Ashley the bigger threat out of the two of us. I'm nothing to him.

"I didn't know you smoked," I hear Shepard say and I quickly look up to see her standing beside me. Huh, didn't even notice the elevator...

"I don't," I reply. I quit smoking. Just this once though, not going to hurt me.

I half expect her to scold me, saying that smoking isn't allowed on the ship, which is true, but to my halfhearted surprise, she just sits down beside me on the floor. We sit like that for a long moment, no one saying a thing, sitting in a semi-comfortable silence. I light up my second cigarette, having put out the first one on the floor.

"I'm not mad at you..." I finally say to her. I hate silence, so I have to break it eventually, even if it's a comfortable one.

"I know," she replies quietly.

I hum at that, though it came out more like a grunt. "It's just... I didn't want anyone to die," I say, looking at floor and how the smoke trailed off from the cigarette. "We got pinned down, and I thought you'd go for Kaidan, like I told you to. We even broke through," I let out a mirthless chuckle there. "And we could've reached the rendezvous point, regrouped with you and then everyone goes home... but Saren showed up, and screwed everything up."

"Well, in that I'm kinda glad he showed up," Shepard says tiredly, making me look at her in surprise. "I was already on my way to you. If he hadn't showed up, I would've made all the way for nothing, because you didn't need my help. At least this way... Kaidan's death is worth something more than just destroying that base..." Well... I have no idea what to say to it. In a way, she's right. Doesn't make me like it though. "Don't think I like the choice I made. I won't like the choice regardless what it is..."

"The Many outweigh the One?" I ask, remembering her words earlier.

"Yes," she confirms. I remember the games then, more accurately, the Arrival DLC. Sacrificing a whole colony to save the galaxy, if only for a short while. "Back on Elysium... this happened a lot. Too many times. There was this turian I met there while on shore leave. While no one in the Alliance will tell you that, he helped me a lot. I'm was the Alliance poster girl at that time, so they don't want to make it look like I actually had help, the pricks. Either way, we were trying to reach one of the civilian bunkers that was under attack, but he got shot in the leg and couldn't really move without my help. Pirates were literally all around us. I had a choice. I either stay, and help a comrade, or I abandon him, and help a couple hundreds of nearly defenseless civilians," she quieted after that. It was pretty obvious which choice she made.

"I'm... sorry to hear that," I say, taking another drag, nearly enjoying the burning sensation it caused.

"Well, don't be. He knew what was at stake. He understood. So did Kaidan," she says quietly, her voice almost a whisper. I take a glance at her, to see her moist and slightly red eyes. She's crying again. Silently. "If I could do this mission all over again, I'll probably make the same choice."

"That still doesn't change anything," I mutter. "Kaidan is still dead, and I still couldn't do a damn thing about it."

"Sometimes things just happen, and we have no control over it. In end, I was the one who made the call, and I was the one who decided to leave Kaidan. Not you, not anyone else. You had nothing to do with it."

"Maybe. I still couldn't do a thing though," I knew this was going to happen, and I didn't do anything about it. I tried, I honestly tried... but apparently, I didn't try hard enough. Perhaps I went about it the wrong way. Who knows? It's too late to dwell on it anyway. "I still screwed up though. When Saren came I just... I just couldn't do anything to him. He wiped the floor with me, and Ashley paid the price for that."

"If anyone is to blame here, It's Saren. You hav-" Shepard begins but I interrupt her heatedly.

"No! You were there. You saw it!" I snap at her, anger filling me when I remember that moment. "I had my weapons aimed at him! I was a second away from shooting him, and – and he shoots Ash! He could've shot me but... he didn't! It's as if I'm just not... not a_ threat _to him..." I trail off, feeling some of my anger evaporate.

Shepard sighs at that. "Then become better," she says, making me look at her with doubt. As if it's something so simple. "Become better. Become a threat, so something like this won't repeat itself. It's as simple as that."

The simple way she said that, as if I can just take myself and become better within a moment, makes me think. Why the hell not? Why _can't_ I become a threat? This whole day was a nightmare. Doug, Riley and Ashley all suffered because I screwed up and because I was simply not good enough. If Shepard thinks I can do better, than fuck it, I _will_ do better.

Shepard gets back up, wipes a stray tear and offers me her hand. "Now come on. You should let Chakwas have a look at you. You look like shit," she says with a tired smirk. I look at the offered hand for a couple of seconds until I take a last drag from the cigarette, put it out and take Shepard's hand.

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><p>"Well, other than bruises, a gunshot wound and a concussion, you're fine. Nothing that medigel won't fix," Chakwas summarizes when she finishes checking me over. I barely pay attention to her. I'm stuck staring at the unmoving bodies of Ashley and Riley, guilt slowly gnawing at me. Chakwas continues explaining me what kinds of damage my body suffered, but I'm not really listening.<p>

"How... how are they?" I ask, interrupting her. She looks a bit annoyed at the fact that I pretty much ignored her until now, but her face quickly softens when she looks at them.

"Sergeant Riley is lucky to be alive. The salarian medic told me that you applied medigel on the wound, and it probably saved her life. A couple of seconds later, and it would have been too late," Chakwas says, giving me a surprisingly appreciating look. I look away from her, somewhat sheepishly, and focus on Ashley, trying my best to ignore the slight stab to the heart this action caused me. I'm glad that she's alive... but seeing her like this is just... painful.

"What about Williams?" Shepard asks.

"She's... a difficult case. I stabilized her, but there's only so much I can do with what I have here. She's needs to get to a hospital as soon as possible," Chakwas says gravely. "The round missed her heart, barely, but it's not the main issue," she pauses and walks up to her table. Pressing a few buttons, a hologram springs up on her monitor, showing a skeleton. Ashley's skeleton. Chakwas touches it, and it zooms in to her spine, where I can easily see the damage. "Unfortunately, the round hit her spine, where it is now lodged. Perhaps it would have been better had her shields and hardsuit didn't slow down the round. That way it would've simply traveled through her and exited on the other side. I removed the round and stopped the bleeding, but such damage will require extensive surgery to repair, and while I can do the operation, I'm not going to risk it. She needs full medical attention and I'm afraid to say that even if the surgery is a complete success, there's a high chance that her career as a soldier is over," Chakwas explains with a grimace.

Oh... oh god. Even Shepard looks shaken by these news. Unable to be a soldier. If there's anything Ashley might consider a nightmare, it's this. Being a soldier in Ashley's blood, that's pretty much what she said so herself. She comes from a long generation of marines and now it's just... taken from her. Along with all her future plans, like redeeming the Williams name. That's just... fucked up. Fucked up, and unfair. I honestly believe that Ashley will see it as a fate worse than death.

And its my fault for getting her into this position in the first place. The small sting I felt in my heart now feels as if someone is crushing it in their fist.

I look down and run my hands through my hair, feeling like I might throw up any moment now. This is fucking unbelievable.

I feel Shepard's hand on my shoulder and I look up. "Come on. Go and get yourself cleaned up," she says quietly. She's fully aware of how Ashley will take the news, and she can relate to her, being a soldier herself. I'm not surprised to see how the news affected her. "we have to report to the Council."

I get up, wincing in pain as all the bruises on my body act up in response to the movement. Without the adrenaline in my systems, I'm in quite a bit of pain. With a last look at Ashley's unconscious body I walk out of the infirmary to take a much needed shower. I need to wash off all this blood. Both mine and Riley's.

This is, without a doubt, the worst day of my life. Virmire is a complete, and utter failure.

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><p><strong>Well... Virmire is over. Up next is the Citadel, Ilos and then... the showdown against Sovereign. Just... wow. I can't believe how close I am to the end of ME1. It's been almost a year since I started this story, and I'm almost done! My current goal: Finish this story in one month. I know it's unlikely, with my updating schedule, but damn it, I will try! Not to mention I have two weeks where I can do nothing but write, starting from the 18th. Awesome, ain't it? Either way, this chapter is done! Next one should be done soon enough too.<br>**

**Over 20 reviews for a single chapter! That's like a new record! Keep 'em coming! I'm always glad to see your support, and your reviews make me feel like a kid in a candy store. So feel free to tell me what you think, and thank you for reading! Until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	45. Chapter 45

**Wooohooohoo! Another chapter! And so soon! Hehe, I'm actually trying this time to get it out on time this time. Be happy, because it means I don't get to play the new DmC or the new Skyrim DLC because of this! I'm missing out! Meh.**

**This was... a difficult chapter to write. At least the beginning of it. Like I said, I always worry when I write some character and I fear that I'll get them wrong, despite the fact that i rarely do that. Either way, once I finished that part, things got a lot easier and I finished this chapter in record time! Now, since I have nothing else to say, not anything important anyway, enjoy the new chapter!**

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><p>I really have no idea why I'm doing this, but it simply feels right for me. Of course, other than the logical reasons. I'm standing at Ashley's usual place, doing Ashley's usual routine: cleaning up the guns. Once I woke up after a relatively restless sleep I went to our usual hangout. The mood was simply.. dour. The absence of Ashley was the most glaring flaw in what I saw. She became a... constant part of the cargo bay during my stay on the Normandy, so not seeing her standing in front of that table fiddling with guns or bickering with Garrus and Wrex was simply... wrong.<p>

Which is why I decided to do something about it. Without saying anything, and getting a couple of glances for Garrus and Wrex, I walked up to the table, picked up one of the rifles and started disassembling it. They looked at me for a couple of moments, before they turned back to whatever they were doing.

I'm not doing everything as fast as Ash does, since I put more effort into putting the things back together properly. As she once said, she can do it with her eyes closed and not paying attention to it. It's all purely mechanical for her, from countless hours of effort and experience. While I got pretty good with it, I still lack the countless hours in order to do it as... mechanically as Ashley can.

My other reason for doing this? I pretty much left all my weapons on Virmire. My rifle was shot. My knife was stuck in a geth platform and my pistol was left lying somewhere on the floor. Of course, I didn't bother to pick any of these up. So while I'm maintaining the weapons, I'm also picking myself a new one. It's a bit silly, but I got a bit attached to my weapons. I'm feeling more guilty about leaving the knife, since it wasn't actually mine. Ashley just loaned it to me.

I haven't seen Shepard since yesterday. In fact, no one has. From what I heard, she holed herself up in her room and haven't left the room since yesterday after leaving Joker with orders to get us to the Citadel as soon as possible. After that, no one seen her. Everyone unanimously agreed to leave her alone and let her handle her loss in her own way. While there wasn't anything official between them, it was pretty common knowledge on the ship that there was more than something between the two.

I'm checking out this Torrent V, which I will probably take with me, when I hear someone approach me. I don't really need to look to know that it's Wrex. He's the only one whose footsteps are that loud, since he doesn't really bother to even try to be quiet. I give him a look to see what he wants, but when he doesn't say anything after a couple of seconds I just turn back to my work. Yeah, I'm definitely taking the Torrent. Much better than these lame Banshees this ship is loaded with.

"You should stop worrying," Wrex suddenly says, making me look at him again.

"I'm not worrying" I reply. And I'm not. I still feel like shit, but I don't really feel worried. Mostly at least.

Wrex snorts at my words. "Really? Usually you're more talkative than this," he remarks. Hey, who are _you_ to say something like this?

"Really?" I draw out the words with a raised eyebrow. "_I'm_ the untalkative one?" I ask with some amusement. I can count the times Wrex voluntarily started a conversation with me in his free time on one hand. Still, despite this rare occurrence, I don't really feel up for it. "Sorry Wrex. One of my friends is dead and another one is crippled, so sorry if I don't really feel like talking at the moment."

The krogan merely grunts in response. "Stop worrying about Williams. I know her type. She's a warrior. Something like this won't stop her. She'll just shrug it off and get back to fighting," he assures me, offering me a small smirk, but then he drops it. "What happened to Alenko is unfortunate, but you shouldn't dwell on it for too long. Everyone has their own way to deal with loss, but just remember that you need to move on," he says quietly, and quite uncharacteristically.

I've long ago noticed that Wrex isn't much of a talker, but when he does talk, it usually pays to listen. I know for a fact that behind all that rough and brutish exterior Wrex loves to put on, there's an actually nice guy there, with surprising wisdom born from a very long life. "How do you deal with it?" I ask him, earning a slight look of confusion, so I elaborate. "With losing friends. You're... lifetimes older than me. I'm sure that many people you knew are... well, dead. How do you deal with it?"

"Ah," Wrex hums. He turns moves closer and leans on the table, making it groan under his weight. "Like I said, everyone has their own way. I prefer to remember the battles we were in. These are the times where we are truly alive, and I'd like to remember it that way. But I move on. No point in dwelling on it, because life goes on, with or without you, and you don't want to let it get an advantage on you," he says, looking as if he was worlds away, his eyes not really focusing on anything. Huh, must be some old Tuchanka wisdom right there. "And before you ask... no, you never really get used to it. If you want to avoid seeing the people you know get killed, you should really reevaluate your career choice. You don't get to my age without seeing some friends die, especially in this line of work."

I simply have to crack a small smile at that. "I don't think I _can_ get as old as you are," I point out. Still, I have to agree that it's a sound advice. I knew this was going to happen since before I got on the Normandy, but I guess that until now it simply didn't... sink in. "Thanks... I gotta ask though. What brought this on? You're usually not this... talkative."

Wrex grunts and looks me in the eye. "This is the first time someone you know got killed?" Well, technically the second one. Doug was the first one, but considering Kaidan followed him in the span on 20 minutes, it feels like one big thing. I nod. "Well, get used to it," he says so bluntly, I almost feel myself reeling back. "People don't live long in our line of work... unless they're me, of course. Get over it as soon as you can, and accept what happened. You can't do anything about it anyway. Having your mind on different things during battle will get _you_ killed, and we don't want that, even though that might _finally_ shut you up. You humans always take your damn time when dealing with these things."

I quirk an eyebrow at that comment. "Is that so?"

Wrex grunts the affirmative. "You humans always have to spend so much time moping around until you accept what is already fact. For us, it's easier to simply kill the one responsible. Faster too, with less moping involved."

"Hey! I'm not moping!" I protest. I do not _mope_! "I'm upset, and I have every damn right to be."

"I'm just telling you what I see," Wrex replies with a shrug. "Man up and get over it. No point in overthinking it. It won't bring him back, or take away Williams' injury."

Even though it's true, I can't simply _get over it_, as Wrex said. I just _can't!_ I'm simply not built this way. "That just seems... so cold," I quietly say, thinking about his words.

"Tuchanka's not known for being nice. Neither is the galaxy," and with those words, he turns around and walks away back to his much-used corner, leaving me to think about his words.

* * *

><p>It's a bit funny how quickly we reached the Citadel because Shepard didn't have to stop on the way for one of the random side-quests she constantly picked up. I have to wonder how come she did it all the time, considering we were kinda in a race to find the Conduit, and all that, despite the fact that said errands were simply on the way to our destination and just took maybe an hour or so from our main destination each time. Either way, it took us just a little below two days to reach the Citadel. We've just cleared the relay and entered the Serpent Nebula and we should arrive to the Citadel soon enough.<p>

Things have gone back to being... relatively normal. The mood was still shitty, Shepard left her room only for sustenance, I've managed to make some field-repairs on my armor to make it as protective as before, managed to slightly calibrate my armor's VI, just because I could. I've honestly tried to simply distract myself from thinking about the people we lost. Not much luck there. A large portion of the Normandy's marines have taken to glaring at me, or simply ignoring me. Mostly those were Doug's friends, blaming me for getting him killed. I can't help but agree with them, but I kept that notion to myself. Riley woke up yesterday, though she still can't talk, mostly because Chakwas forbid her from doing that. I didn't go to see her yet... mostly because I have no idea what I can say to her.

Oddly enough, I mostly hanged around with the surviving salarians. Well, hanging out is a relative term. I just talked with them a couple of times about random things. Then I've helped Garrus with the Mako calibrations, since my mechanical knowledge is at least somewhat useful, and hanged around with Wrex. I've basically drowned myself in work to keep myself busy.

Not that it really worked. Thoughts, ideas and other things kept getting stuck in my head, most of them concerning my friends on the Citadel. Saren will attack the Citadel soon, and the Council never bothered to warn the population of the fact that Shepard _did_ warn them in advance. My friends are in danger. Simple as that. And I'm in the position to warn them. What's nagging me is the question: should I? Should I warn them? What if I just get them killed? What if the exact same thing happens as it did with Virmire? What if I get them killed?

And this is why I'm going completely out of my way at this moment. I open my omni-tool and write a quick message.

_'The Citadel will be attacked. I have friends there. I want to warn them.'_ I cringe as I consider the next words. _'what should I do? I need help._

_A'_

I press the send button and wait for the message to reach the Chairman. I can't believe I'm actually asking him what to do. So far, he's been nothing but an asshole that I want to punch. Let's see if he can be a useful asshole I want to punch.

I stand idly in the CIC while waiting for his reply, watching the crew members working on whatever it they're working. Chakwas is preparing Ashley for transportation once we dock with the Citadel. Kirrahe's guys are getting ready to depart too. My omni-tool pings.

_'Oh, now you're asking me what to do? What could have possibly happened to make you do that now? I thought you had everything under control?'_

I grind my teeth, wanting to punch something, but quickly type a reply instead.

_'Stow it. I screwed up. No need to rub it in my face. What do I do now? I can't just let them die.' _I write and send it. I don't have to wait long for him to reply. Barely ten seconds passed when I got a reply.

_'Do what you want. The guys you want to warn don't really play such a big role in the large picture. Saving them, or killing them won't change much. In fact, you already saved them before. For all purposes, most of them should be dead,'_ I read, my eyes widening. Right. Chora's Den, when Shepard assaulted it. Originally, they were supposed to be there, but because of me... wow. _'Just know that if you do warn them, there will be consequences. There are always consequences. To everything you do. I have no idea what they are. I can't see the future. You are a single small link in a large system, only you have the ability to make the whole damn thing collapse. Keep that in mind. You don't want to see the results when the whole system collapses. I'm glad that you finally grew a brain and actually asked me, but in the end, the choice is up to you. It's up to me to warn you so you won't go too far. Warn them or don't, whatever you want. It's something that __**I**__**won't**__ do, and that's exactly what I need. Good luck._

_C'_

Something I won't do, and that's exactly what I need? What does he mean by that? There's definitely something he doesn't tell me. Huh. When has he ever told me anything to begin with? Never mind it now. He basically gave me green light to do what I want to. Now we only need to reach the damn Citadel.

Ten minutes later, we're already docking with the Citadel. I go over to Joker to notify him that I'm going away. From what I remember, we don't really have that much time until we have to escape from this place. Every minute counts. "Hey, Joker," I greet him, which he returns with his own distracted 'hey'. I wait for a minute or so until he finishes all the docking procedures – he's always giving me hell when I talk to him during this time, so I might as well wait – and once he's done, he turns to look at me questioningly. "Uh, tell the Commander that I have some business I got to attend, and that I'll be back soon."

"What am I, your secretary?" He quips with a raised eyebrow, but quickly relents when he sees that I'm not smiling at his usual humor. "Fine. I'll tell her to message you if she needs anything."

"Thanks," I say and move to the airlock. Or try to. The door opens and three men in hospital garbs enter the ship.

I've never frequented the hospital, but from the few times I've been there, I know how doctors dress. Still, that doesn't explain what they're doing here. The lead guy notices me staring. "We're authorized to be here. We're here to pick up one of your wounded, one Ashley Williams... can you direct us to your medbay?" he says in a very professional manner, one which left me almost feel stupid for doubting him. I dumbly point in the direction of the CIC.

"Uh, go down one level and you'll find it on the left..." I trail off. Without saying anything else, the three medical personnel leave in the direction I pointed them to. Well, that's a bit rude, but I guess they don't want to waste their time with some random idiot while there's someone wounded to take care of. With a mental shrug, I'm about to enter the airlock when several familiar faces come into my view: the salarians. "Leaving already?" I ask them as I step into the airlock, with them following close behind.

"Yes. We need to report to our superiors," Kirrahe responds but says no more. I give him a nod of understanding. Top secret and all that. Can't discuss it with outsiders. The usual deal.

"Uh..." I wondering, wondering how to phrase it. They're leaving, and I won't have another chance later. "Sorry it turned out the way it did. You nearly lost your whole unit," I trail off for a bit as we're being scanned by the VI. "I just feel like I could've done more..."

"It is too late to think about it now. Everyone knew what we were getting into. I've honestly expected it to be a lot worse than it actually was. We're not frontline fighters," he says. The scan finishes and the door opens, and we move outside, where I can see a couple salarians in uniforms are waiting. "while the outcome is not the best one, we still completed our objective, which means that all we did was not for nothing."

True. Very true. It means that the ones we lost didn't die for nothing. That doesn't make them less dead though. "Still... things could've gone better," I say with a bitter frown.

"Yes. They could have. But they didn't," Kirrahe replies with a sigh, showing just how much that fact is bothering him. He stops and turns to fully face me. I do the same and to my surprise Kirrahe offers me his hand. "Nonetheless, we got out, and partly thanks to you. If you hadn't done what you did in that ambush, I doubt that many of us would have survived. For that, you have my thanks."

I look at his hand for a couple of seconds in surprise, which I quickly shake off, and grab his hand and give it a firm shake. Salarians don't do the handshake thing. It's mainly a human thing, though some individuals from various races actually took up the gesture, salarians rarely did something like it. For Kirrahe to do it... "It was an honor to fight beside you, with each one of you," I say, looking and Kirrahe and then his men, and I genuinely mean it. A couple of them look a bit embarrased at my words and mumble a quick farewell and start moving down the docking ramp over to the two salarians.

I let go of his hand, and he gives me a small smile. "Likewise," he says before turning and following the rest of his surviving men. I watch him go for a couple of seconds, a little smile of my own on my face. No goodbyes, no farewells, nothing. And for some reason, I feel that we don't actually need it. I watch them walk into the elevator and disappear from view. I don't think it's the last time I see them.

A couple of seconds later I realize what I just saw, and groan. I just allowed them to take the elevator. It will take ages until it gets back here!

* * *

><p>Chora's Den is uncharacteristically... empty. I haven't been here in weeks but... damn! In all the months I've worked here, and then the time I spent on the Normandy, I have never seen the Den so empty. It's like a ghost town! Sure, they closed for much-needed repairs, but it was weeks ago!<p>

Well, technically it was still morning, but even then the Den had a lot more patrons than now. I have to note that the repairs were done amazingly well. I honestly see nothing that would indicate a firefight happened here in the first place. Ugh, no time to be amazed at the future's repairing techniques. I'm here on business. This is not a social visit.

The turian bartender – I think his name is Terin... I hope. I'm honestly embarrassed that I can't remember his name, especially so since he's a genuinely nice guy – looks up from his boring task of cleaning one of the glasses and spots me, quickly opting a smile. "Alex! You're still alive!" he greets me.

I walk up to the bar, taking care to look around. I see a couple of asari, two of our dancers in fact, and they give me a short wave and a small smirk. I give them a smile in return. The others I see are pretty much our oldest and constant patrons. They don't actually say anything, but they give me a look of recognition. What catches most of my attention though is Johnson standing by the corridor leading to Fist's office – Jorrun's office now – with some other, new, guy. I look back to the bartender to see that much to my surprise he already poured me a shot glass of some clear liquid. He slides it across the bar and I quickly catch it. With a raised eyebrow, I take a sniff and recoil slightly when the strong, stinging smell of vodka assault's my nose. Or at least, what I'm sure is vodka. It could be something similar too. "Welcome back," the turian says with a smile.

"Thanks, T," I say, using the first letter of his name until I find a less awkward way to find out his name. I can't blame anything other than myself for talking to him only a couple of times in all the months I worked here. I put the glass back on the table. It's still too early to drink as far as I'm concerned. Who the hell drinks strong booze in the morning anyway? "Is Jorrun here?" I ask.

"Yeah, he is, but you're not going to be able to see him now. He's got important business, so you'll have to wait until he's finished," the bartender replies apologetically.

I silently curse to myself. Well, there goes my simple plan. I don't have time to wait. I have to warn him _now_. I look at the vodka and sigh. I grab it and down with one gulp, scrunching my face at the strong taste and the burning aftertaste it left in my throat. Damn, this vodka is _good_. Too bad I hate vodka, so I can't really enjoy the admittedly good quality. Well, time to go with plan B, and I'm afraid I need to be at least a little drunk to even think about doing this. Not that one shot is enough to make me drunk, but alas, I'll have to work with what I have.

I leave the bartender to his work and walk over to Johnson. "Alex!" he greets me with a wide smile. "had to get a drink before you came over? That's just damn rude," he remarks with a smirk.

"Who is this?" the other, unfamiliar guy asks, looking at me suspiciously.

I simply look back at him with my 'and who the fuck are you?' look. He looks like a total punk. Even more than I do. Short, obviously dyed blonde hair, plain dark pants and T-shirt and a totally unimpressive face. Other than being in good shape, which I could easily see by his very muscular arms, he's pretty much a regular guy. An armed guy, judging by the pistol strapped to his thing. I look back at Jorrun, silently asking the same question the new guy asked. "He's the FNG. Don't mind him, he's still stupid," he replies with a grin aimed at the new guy, who only glares in return. "Watch who you're talking to, kid. He's one of Jorrun's lieutenant! Same rank as me. So to put it simply, he can fire your ass," Johnson finishes with a devious grin. The new guy pales as he looks at me and I allow myself to have some satisfaction in that. I wonder if I've been like this when I started working. "So, mind telling me who made your face look like this?"

Oh, yeah. Forgot about the bruises that are covering my face. The medigel did wonders, but they're still fairly visible. Especially my busted forehead, and the bruise on the side of my jaw from Shepard's punch. "Saren. Then Shepard," I say with a shrug, silently enjoying the widening of the new guy's eyes. Yeah. I'm fighting fucking _Spectres_, you little punk. Go sit in the corner and suck on your thumb. "Jorrun's in the office?" I ask, getting a nod. "I need to see him. Now."

"Whoa, whoa there, you know I can't let you do that," Johnson quickly says, and I note that the new guy repositions himself to intercept me should I move further into the corridor. Great. When Johnson's saying I can't see someone, he usually means that.

"It's important. Way more important than whatever it is he's doing," I argue and get a doubting look. "I'm serious," And then, new guy decides to be an idiot. Which also happens to be a blessing. On any different day, I'd think this to be the most stupid idea in existence. Now though, I don't really care. Plus, I can blame the vodka I drank for clouding my judgment.

The new guy decides that it's a smart thing to pull out his pistol, and wave it in front of me. "Hey! He said that you can't see him, so that means that you _can't!_" he says in a threatening tone, which, after meeting and fighting Saren, was almost a joke to me. I close my eyes for a second, take a very deep breath and act.

Before any of them can react, I grab the pistol in front of my face and yank it out of his hands while delivering a swift kick to his stomach. Without the kick, it probably wouldn't have worked, but since it connected solidly and make him stumble back, I took the gun out of his hand without any problems. Without looking at the results, I pull out _my_ pistol and quickly aim it at Johnson's face. I quickly flip the captured pistol – a cheap one I have to note – catch it by the grip and aim it at it's former owner. This all took place in the span of about three seconds. The only reason it worked was because Johnson is simply didn't expect anything like this. And because the new guy is an idiot.

While I keep my face calm and collected, inside though I can feel my heart beating like a jackhammer and I'm half a step away from doing a victory dance. Did I do something incredibly stupid? Yes. And I looked absolutely awesome while doing it. The whole bar quieted down as they stared at me with wide eyes. The bartender stopped cleaning his glass, the two asari dancers had their jaws hanging and the patrons slowly moved to positions that offered more cover from gunfire. Three of the patrons, much to my surprise, pull out their own pistols and aim them at me.

I look at Johnson, who to his credit, just raised an eyebrow at the pistol aimed at his face. "I need to see Jorrun. _Now_," I repeat myself, making sure to keep my tone absolutely calm.

"That important, huh?" he asks calmly. He quickly motions to the three guys behind me to lower their weapons. After a moment of hesitation, they do that and Johnson moves out of my way.

"More than that," I say and move past him, not holstering the gun yet. While my gun is no longer pointed at them, they still keep a little distance between us as they follow after me. Johnson won't attack me, that much I'm sure of. I did it simply to make him understand how important that was to me. So, because of that, I reach the office without incident. I holster the pistol, throw the cheap one back to it's owner, and enter the office.

The two occupants of the room turn to face me immediately. I immediately recognize Jorrun, who is looking at me both with surprise and anger. The other guy I don't recognize. The first thing I can say is old. Like, _really_ old. Nearly bald head with a some gray hair defiantly staying there, lots and _lots_ of wrinkles on his face and body. His body was thin and almost frail-looking, but it just looked like that, considering how quickly he turned to face me, and how alert his eyes were once he spotted me. The guy was old, but he's not really a harmless old guy. That much I can tell. "Hey! The hell is wrong with you?" Jorrun snaps, looking at me and then at Johnson who came in right behind me. "I told you I can't be bothered right now!"

"Boss!" the new guy came running in, brandishing the pistol I threw back at him, which is now pointing at me. "We tried to stop him but he pulled out his weapon and then just walks-"

"Hey hey hey, you shut your face," Jorrun interrupts him, pointing a finger at him while giving a deadly glare. "If we want to hear you talk, I will shove my arm up your ass and work your mouth like a puppet."

That effectively shut him up, and showed me just how much Joe is pissed. _Yeaaah_... I kinda get the feeling that this wasn't the best idea. Too late to back off though. "We need to talk," I say calmly.

Jorrun turns his glare over to me. "What the fuck are you thinking? When I say I have a business meeting and I don't want to be bothered, _I_ _mean it!_" he snaps at me.

"Calms down. Let the boy speak," the old man speaks for the first time. His voice is dry, sounding almost like a croak. He effectively catches the turian's attention, making him look at the man with surprise. "if he bursts in like this, especially when he knows he shouldn't, it must be very important," he points out, calmly and casually, eying me with some odd playfulness. The voice of reason in this room, apparently.

Jorrun regards the man for a while before he jerk his head towards the door. Without saying another word, Johnson leaves, taking the newbie after him, leaving the three of us alone. I give Jorrun a questioning glance, asking who the hell was this old man and he replies in kind. "This is Don Capriotti of the Kithoi ward. The head of the mafia," he introduces him with a tone that explained how much I just embarrassed him in front of someone so important. I inwardly cringe, knowing that Joe will give me hell later for this. He looks back at the head of the mafia and gesture at me. "This is Alex, one of my lieutenants," now he looks back at me with a pointed look. "Now do you mind explaining me why you pulled out a weapon on our guys and why you decided to barge in like this?"

"The Citadel will be under attack soon," I say, blunt and to the point, causing the two to immediately perk up.

"By who?" the Don asks in a cold tone. Gone was the playfulness, and he was looking at me with complete seriousness.

"Saren and his geth," I answer. "I'm talking about the whole damn geth fleet along with a freakin' Reaper."

"Not that I appreciate the sentiment, but why did you come with this to _me?_" Jorrun asks with some confusion. "This sounds like something the Council needs to handle. We don't have a fleet, or anything that can stop them."

"Because the Council won't do shit about this. Shepard's warning them right now, but I know how it will go. They'll just place some patrols and lock down a couple of relays. That won't stop him. He'll pass through whatever the Council will place and he will attack the Citadel. I... We'll try to stop him, but he's days ahead of us, and I'm honestly not sure if we'll make it..." I trail off from there, feeling a bit frustrated at that fact.

"And what do you want us to do about it?" the old man asks, pointing out a major flaw in my explanation.

What do I want to them to do? "I, I don't know! Arm yourselves! This is your home, isn't it? Your territory and so on! They will board the Citadel and attack everything! C-Sec won't be enough to stop them, we all know that. I'm talking about an army of geth here! Warn everyone, use those stockpiles of weapons you have, I don't know! If we fail, not only the Citadel will fall. I'm talking about the whole freakin' galaxy," I'm technically saying classified information, but I need them to act.

"What do you mean by that?" the Don asks, giving Jorrun a curious looks. The turian shrugs in confusion and looks at me for an answer.

Ugh, more questions? Fuck it. I'll wing it and deal with everything later. "Saren has a ship. Only it's not really a ship. It's part of a race of sentient machines, basically AI's, who come into the galaxy every 50,000 years and wipe out all organic civilization. They wiped out the Protheans, and the ones before the Protheans, and the ones before those ones. They've been doing this for eons, millions of years. Now it's _our_ turn," I explain, giving them the basic information about the Reapers.

I have to say that they're taking this a lot better than I expected them to. Don Capriotti just stares at me with a raised eyebrow and a doubting look. Jorrun has his mouth open and he stares at me as if I just grew a second head. He blinks a couple of times and finally speaks. "Do you realize how insane this sounds?"

"Hell yeah, and I'm directly involved in all of this. That's not the point. They're real, and this is happening. There's only one Reaper here right now, but if it gets to the Citadel, the rest of them will come here, and we're doomed. Simple as that. I'm just giving you a warning. Arm yourselves, get ready, I don't know, try to minimize casualties, kill geth. Just do something, because the Council doesn't believe us and they won't do shit until we give them solid proof."

"What makes you think that _we_ believe you?" the old man asks, making me halt. I look at him incredulously, refusing to believe that I just heard this. I'm about to reply when my omni-tool pings. I quickly open it up and read the message I just received. It's from Joker and I quickly get the gist of it.

"Aw, fuck!" I groan out, making them look at me in confusion. "They put us under lock-down! They grounded us!" I growl out, can't help but be pissed at these moronic politicians. By the nine goddamned hells! "I got to go. They recalled everyone back to the ship. Joe, look. You know me for a long time now and you know that I _won't _lie about something like this. Just trust me, just this one time. If nothing happens, it means we stopped him, which I doubt will happen now, considering the Council are being the asses they are. They'll come, trust me on this. Just focus on the geth and leave the Reaper and Saren to us," I say and with that I move to the door, but then I pause there. "And, uh, sorry for interrupting you like this, but this was important," I add sheepishly and quickly run out.

Goddamned Council! Fools! Dammit, I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when Sovereign and his fleet come bursting through their _defenses –_ and I'm using that term lightly, considering they were completely and utterly _owned_ in the game – and fucking them up. I run out of the Den, not bothering to answer Johnson as he yelled after me. Sorry man, but I've got a lot of important things to do!

I gotta get to the Normandy as soon as possible. We have a breakout to plan!

* * *

><p><strong>And we're done! Woohoo! At least this chapter is somewhat longer than usual. Still not as long as I would like. Heh, that sometimes makes me wonder just how long I want them to be. Either way, next chapter will deal with the escape, and after that... Ilos. Soon enough we're going to reach the climax of the whole conflict: the battle of the Citadel. Ooh, that's going to be awesome. <strong>

**Again, I will answer all these rather silly questions I get, which is actually just one question. Seriously. Read the damn AN! YES. I will continue this story into ME2 and probably into ME3 as well! While I appreciate the review count, and the reviews in general, you can stop asking the same question. Yes, I will continue the story!  
><strong>

**Now, again, I notice how many reviews this story has, how many hits and so on. It's simply awesome. Thank you, everyone! Special thanks go to the people who reviews, because you just make me feel like a kid in a candy store. And you make me try harder too, which is always good. Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a review with whatever you want to say to me! Constructive criticism, suggestions or just plain opinions! All is appreciated and considered! Thanks again, and until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	46. Chapter 46

**Hello everyone! This took me much, much, MUCH longer than I expected, but I got this chapter out! Had this thrice-damned writer's block that bothered me to no end, and lot's of other things that kept distracting me (Damn you TVtropes!) and so on. I'm finally on my vacation, and I have 12 more days of absolutely nothing to waste my time on other than writing! Yay for me. Because I have a flair for dramatics, I plan on ending this story on the 50th chapter! So... 4 more chapters left until the end of the story. Awesome. Simply... awesome. If I'm lucky, and nothing distracts me, I'll finish this story in the span of 12 days! Be grateful! I'm missing out on DmC, Colonial Marines and many, many other awesome games for you!**

**Now... enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

><p>I reach the docks in record time. I think it had more to do with luck than anything else. The elevator was already on my level once I reached the C-Sec academy.<p>

Despite the fact that I knew and expected this, it's still freaking absurd! Shepard told them that Saren is preparing an attack and supplied them with a course of action. We simply could do exactly what we've been doing so far: going after Saren alone. But no! Ground our ship! Stop us from acting against Saren! Stop us from doing the only thing that might save their asses! Fucking retarded, that's what it is.

I walk – more like storm – into the Normandy and to my surprise I stumble right upon the person I'm looking for: Shepard. She's looking through the lockers near the airlock for some reason and once I step inside she turns around to give me a surprised glance. Wow, she looks... like shit, really. Almost as if she hadn't slept in days. Now adding this fiasco on top of the pile, it's pretty obvious what she feels now.

Upon seeing me, she blows out a heavy sigh and slumps to the floor, leaning against the locked. Instantly, this brings up a memory and I'm shocked to find out that this is the part where Shepard gets the pep talk from Liara... or someone else, depending on some things. Considering I don't see Liara here, and Kaidan and Ash are currently... unavailable, it leaves _me_. Uh, awesome?

"I've heard already. Can't believe they did this to you," I grunt out angrily. "After everything you've done to them... ugh, idiots. Sorry that it turned out like this," I say, feeling just a little bit responsible for this, and only because I'm a citizen of the Citadel.

"It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault, other than theirs, of course," she finishes bitterly.

"It doesn't make it right. You did _all_ their work for them, and this is how they repay you. Grounding the Normandy..." I shake my head at the absurdity of their actions.

"I don't care than they grounded me. They _refuse _to go after Saren! If they don't stop him from finding the Conduit, we're all dead and all of this was for _nothing,_" she finishes weakly, letting her head hang down at these words.

"No way to change their minds, is there?" I ask, feeling a frown form on my face.

"No. I pushed them as hard as I could. They wouldn't budge. Not even when the fate of the galaxy is on the line..." she spits out, voice tainted with disgust and disappointment.

"So what, now we're going to sit on our asses here while Saren is going to get everyone killed?" I ask with a small doubtful smirk aimed at the woman.

She looks up at me with some surprise and blinks a couple of times as she processes my words, then she lets out a short chuckle and shakes her head. "Hell no. We're lost the battle, but not the war. I'll figure something out..."

"Of course you will. You have a talent for it, from what I hear. Whatever happens, I'm with you until the very end, even if it involves you dragging us into the hells or a black hole. _That's_ a promise," I say with a smile, offering her my hand. Her gaze softens at that and she allows a small smile to show on her face. She grabs hold of my hand and I pull her up to her feet. Incidentally, once I pull her up she ends up standing right in front of my face, and my awkward sense of self decided to act up, and something clicked in my head.

I'm usually pretty casual around women, and I have no problems talking freely with them. Unless they are incredibly appealing. Physically appealing, that is. And Shepard happens to be hot as far as I'm concerned. Very hot. Same height as I am, perhaps a couple of centimeters taller, bright green eyes, and the eye-catching red hair. The fact that I'm totally into redheads didn't help me at all. Until now, I've always had other things on my mind, with all the missions, with Shepard having a sort-of-relationship with Kaidan, the fact that Shepard is... well, _Shepard!_ She's definitely not some random hot girl I might meet on the street or in a bar. Until now, as much as I am uncomfortable admitting it, she was more than just a woman. Whether it was because I still somehow consider her as the iconic game character, or the fact that she's _Commander_ _Shepard_, or that she was in a relationship until now doesn't really matter. What matter now is the fact that my old – almost forgotten – self decides to act up and I end up standing in front of her, incredibly close, still holding her hand and staring at her like an idiot for what feels like an eternity.

Point is, Shepard is very hot, and I apparently forgot about it until this moment.

"_Commander, got a message from Captain Anderson,_" Joker's voice interrupts through the loudspeakers, effectively breaking the awkward moment.

Thank you, _thank you_, Joker. I will never, _ever_ annoy you again. This was possibly the most awkward moment I've had in a long, _long_ while. I let go of her hand and put some distance between us faster than she could register Joker's words, or even blink. By the Nine Hells, great timing Brain! The fuck is wrong with you?! Good time to make me find my commanding officer to be very attractive.

"What did he want?" Shepard asks, apparently deciding to ignore the probably-weird stare I was giving her.

"_Only said to meet him at that club in the wards. Flux_."

"It looks like someone beat you to it. I think Anderson has something in mind," I remark, recalling his awesome escape plan. I won't mind seeing a montage of him punching Udina in the face. Damn, we really should have planted a camera there just for this reason.

"Looks like it. Let's go see what he has," she says with a small smirk, her spirits now back in positive levels. Good, glad I could cheer her up. She's also ignoring the weird moment I had, so that's good too.

* * *

><p>Flux is exactly the same as the last time I've seen it. Crowded and lively. I've always admired this difference between the Den and Flux. While Flux was lively and filled with people nearly all the time, that's not to say that the Den was empty, but the customers that frequented it were usually the same people. Thus, most of the patrons knew eachother, unlike here where everyone is a stranger. That's partly the reason why me and the gang always drank at Flux. And the fact that we had a strict rules about drinking on the job, regardless if it was your shift or not.<p>

We met Garrus just outside the Normandy – he was just coming back after having received the message – and we reached the club without incident. Well, mostly. There was a supposedly human diplomat just outside the club who wanted some stims, but Shepard pretty much told him to get over it and stop being an embarrassment. After that, we left the dejected guy and entered the club.

Finding Anderson is not difficult. He has this presence about him that makes him stick out in a crowd. There's simply something that screams 'Military Officer' about him. We move through the crowd over to him and he quickly spots us, beckoning us over. Fortunately, Anderson picked one of the large tables by the window, so there's enough chairs for everyone. "Glad you came, Shepard," he greets the Commander, offering us a quick greeting glance. Huh, no time for formalities, I guess. "I heard what happened," his voice is heard just above the techno music, loud enough for us to hear, quiet enough for everyone to not hear a word. Good thinking on his part.

"They pulled me off the mission. Just like when they forced you to give up the Normandy," Shepard supplies bitterly.

"I know. I'm sorry. I wanted to warn you, but there was no way to get a message to you before you docked," Anderson replies with a grimace. "I know you're pissed off right now, but you can't give up. They all think this is over, but we both know it's not. You have to go to Ilos. You have to stop Saren from using the Conduit!"

"I _would_ if I had a ship that isn't grounded," Shepard says with a frustrated sigh. "And without the Normandy, there's no way I'm going anywhere into the Terminus Systems undetected."

"Citadel control's locked out all the Normandy's systems, but if we override the ambassador's orders..." and here is the objective. It's actually very simple as far as I'm concerned. "we can get them to bring the Normandy back online. You can be in the Terminus Systems before anyone knows you're gone."

Shepard looks intrigued. Well, it's not like we have any other choice anyway. "What's the plan?" she asks, leaning forward in her seat.

"I can unlock the Normandy from one of the consoles in the Citadel control center. You'll have a few minutes before anyone realizes what's happened," Anderson tells the first plan, which is the _bad_ one as far as I'm concerned.

"Uh, that's a _bad_ idea," Garrus points out, speaking for the first time since this conversation began and voicing my exact thoughts. "That's a restricted area. Armed guards patrol the place and they're taking their job seriously. You won't be getting in without them seeing you."

Everyone looks at Garrus at this, and he fidgets slightly under their gazes until they look away. "Leave that to me," Anderson says. "Just make sure you're in the Normandy when the systems come online."

I look at Shepard. She's not going to accept it, is she? I don't recall exactly what happened when Shepard accepts it, but I'm pretty sure it's bad. Punching Udina in the face is a _much_ better alternative! Shepard shakes her head, much to my relief. "There's got to be another way."

Anderson hums at that, looking thoughtful for a couple of seconds. "Ambassador Udina issued the lockdown order. If I can hack into the computer in his office... maybe I can override it."

I have to fight the urge to grin. "He won't just stand there while you hack his computer," I point out helpfully. Again, I literally have to crush the grin that is slowly forming on my face. Udina is such an unlikable person, so it's his fault anyway. I'm not feeling bad about wanting him to get punched.

"Hopefully he won't be there. If he is... I'll just have to think of something," he replies. Yeah. Think of something. That's just a freaking awesome line of thinking that I can truly respect. If he's there... just knock the fuck out of him! Hah!

"The ambassador won't be happy about this," Garrus warns. "You'll be charged with treason, a capital offense."

"We don't have a lot of options," Anderson replies with a shrug. "I break into the ambassador's computer, or I take my chances with the patrols in Citadel control," he finishes and looks at Shepard, obviously waiting for her to decide.

"You'll have a better chance if you go after the ambassador's computer," Shepard decides, making me let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Yeah, as far as I know he doesn't have armed guards with him, and if he's there he won't really suspect what you're up to if you walk into his office," I say, giving my opinion on the success rate of the plan.

Anderson cracks a smile at that. "I was hoping you'd say that. The ambassador has made it personal," he says grimly. Oh yeah. That's personal alright. Good luck Captain, I hope you break his jaw. Less whining for us to hear later if you do that. "You ready to get the hell off this station, Commander?" he asks, with a small confident smile plastered on his face.

Shepard stands up and returns the smile. "Let's do it."

Anderson follows suit. "I'll take care of the lockdown. You get down to the Normandy and tell Joker to stand by," and with that, he leaves, rushing out of the club. We stand there for some reason for a couple of seconds before we start moving too.

"You know, I'm kinda surprised that you're okay with breaking the law, being a cop and all that," I say to Garrus as we leave Flux.

Garrus lets out a mirthless chuckle at that. "This is more important than upholding some law or another. If it stops us from saving lives... it's not a law worth upholding," he says quite heatedly. Huh, this definitely looks like the beginning of Archangel here...

"Damn right," Shepard agrees. "The Council wants to stop me from going after Saren. Well, I say screw them. I'm going to do what I have to do, Council or ambassadors be damned," Shepard supplies. Well, now that's definitely not going to dissuade him from the whole vigilante thing. Not that I actually can disagree with Shepard's opinion. I happen to fully support it myself. Screw the Council. This decision of theirs is just filled with idiocy.

Once we're out of the club we quickly take a skycar to the docks. Ten minutes later, we're already crossing the bridge to the Normandy. Once we're inside, Garrus leaves to prepare the Mako while Shepard stays by Joker, waiting for Anderson to pull off his plan. Since I have nothing better to do, I stay too.

It's a bit nerve-wrecking. We just stand there, waiting for this little holographic icon to turn green, while we have absolutely no idea when it will happen. Sadly, Anderson didn't really give us an estimate of how long it will take him to pull it off, so we have to be ready to get off this station in a moment's notice. Joker sends Shepard a questioning look but Shepard ignores him, instead preferring to stare a hole in the red icon. It's already been almost ten minutes since we came on board, and I'm actually starting to worry about Anderson. Did something happen? Is it possible that I changed anything without knowing about it?

Thankfully, all these thoughts are for nothing. The icon changes it's color to green and everyone bursts into action. "Get us out of here, Joker! Now!" Shepard barks to the pilot while he was pushing various buttons. A second later the ship jerks as the clamps let go of it and another second later, I can see the Citadel docks getting further and further away from us. We turn around and quickly set course to the relay.

"Glad that's over," I remark, getting a nod out of Shepard.

"I'm glad too. I hope Captain Anderson is fine..." she trails off and I must fight down a grin once more. Oh, he's more than fine, that's for sure. He just decked Udina in the face. Everyone will be fine after that. She turns to Joker. "Joker. Set course to Ilos. We're going after Saren."

Awesome. We're going in. We're finally there. Wow, it's hard to believe that all of this is almost over. It's the last mission already! Unbelievable. It feels like it's been ages since I first joined the crew. Just... wow. It's the point of no return already.

"Go and get some rest. I don't think we'll have another opportunity once we reach Ilos," Shepard suggests and leaves the cockpit. I give her a nod and decide to follow her advice. She's right. I'm still sort-of recovering from my wounds, and once we do reach the planet, we won't rest until the very end. My arm aches a bit whenever I move it, but it's nothing crippling. Just annoying. I think I'll get my stuff ready and then get some sleep. According to the screens, we'll reach Ilos in about 13 hours. Plenty of time to get ready. And plenty of time for Saren to beat us to the place, unfortunately.

* * *

><p>Well, there goes that plan. I readied all my stuff, and went to sleep... only that didn't really work. Can't sleep. The best I could accomplish is dozing off for a couple of hours before waking up again. I check the timer I set on my omni-tool. Four hours left until we reach Ilos. Huh... well, it was more than a couple of hours, but still. What the hell am I going to do for four hours?<p>

Well, I guess I'll do what I usually do. I groan slightly when I get up from my bunk, mostly because I used my injured arm to brace myself, and get out of the room. I'll get myself something to eat.

While it's still early evening, at least according to _our_ clock, the ship is nearly deserted, other than the occasional crewman I see. I guess I wasn't the only one who decided to catch some sleep before the shit hits the fan, so to speak. And hit the fan it will. I don't know about the ship, but the ground team won't have much time to rest. We're going fight through Ilos and then through the Citadel, without any rest in between. Yeah, tough times are ahead.

And admittedly, I'm pretty nervous, which is probably why I can't really sleep. Down on Ilos, Saren is going to throw everything he has at us... not to mention what were going to face on the Citadel. Sure, I've gotten a lot better since this whole journey started but it's still a little bit worrying. I still get scared whenever I'm being shot at. Knowing that with one unlucky move, or a lucky shot for the enemy, I'll catch a round somewhere on my person. Can't say I love that feeling, since I've been shot several times by now. It's nerve-wrecking. Considering this is going to probably be the longest firefight in my career as a... whatever I am, I'm not really feeling excited.

I about to grab myself something to eat when I spot Shepard on one of the tables, a half filled glass in front of her with some clear liquid in it. "Didn't expect to see you here," I remark with a raised eyebrow, walking over to the fridge in hopes that I'll find some edible inside. "I'd think that you'd rest or something."

"I can say the same thing to you. You _should_ rest," she shoots back, taking a sip from her glass. I rummage through the fridge and come upon a small box filled with some rice and sauce. With a shrug I take it. Hey, I'm saving the galaxy. Can't do that if I'm hungry. I think I'll be forgiven for taking some food without permission.

"Yeah, I should. But I can't," I say with a shrug, taking a seat by her side. I don't bother heating the food. Don't have the patience for it now. "You?" I ask before I start wolfing down my policed food.

"Same," is her nonchalant reply. She takes another sip and sighs. "Can't help but worry that we're not going to make it in time," she admits.

I swallow all my food before replying. I'm in the presence of a lady after all. "We'll make it," I assure her. "He has a fleet with him. We're a single ship. We're simply faster than he is."

"He's a whole day ahead of us," she points out. "he could already be there for all we know."

"Well, that means that we're all screwed, isn't it?" I ask with a roll of my eyes. "Then let's hope that's not the case. Even if it is, we tried, and that's what matters, I think," I supply helpfully. "Personally, I'm more concerned about avoiding getting shot again. This shit's not pleasant," I say, patting my injury carefully.

That gets her to chuckle a bit. "That it is," she agrees, downing the remainder of her glass. She sits quietly after that, looking at the empty glass while I wolf down the remainder of my late lunch. "Thanks for listening," she suddenly says, making me look at her oddly.

"Huh?" I breathe out. "What for?"

"For listening. I'm the _great Commander Shepard_," she says with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "I'm not allowed to worry about anything. I have to be stone cold towards everything and always set an example to everyone..." she trails off, her voice rather bitter by the end.

"Oh," I dumbly say. That's... kinda nice, I think. To think that Shepard actually considers me close enough to show some doubt about what we're doing. Kinda makes me feel special, being one of the select few in the whole galaxy that Shepard feels comfortable with. One of the perks for being on the team, I guess. "Uhm... you're welcome, I guess," I slowly respond after getting over my surprise.

"I don't usually have any chance to... talk freely like this. After everything I've been through, everyone thinks I'm some kind of... ideal of a soldier. I don't have doubts, I don't have fears and I get the job done no matter what. The ideal soldier. And the ideal soldier is not allowed to show anyone weakness. I never had anyone to really talk with other than my family and Captain Anderson until I met Kaidan..." she trails off with a grimace.

I grimace at that too, though it's not very visible. It's still uncomfortable for me whenever the subject is brought up, and I'm pretty sure it's even worse for Shepard. "How are you holding up? You and Kaidan were close..."

"I miss him," she says, looking at the kitchenette where Kaidan usually spent his free time. "We weren't together for as long as I wish we were, and it's one of my biggest regrets now. I wanted to spend more time with him. I wish there was something different that I could've done, but in the end, I would've still chosen the same..."

I grimace internally. Shepard couldn't do a thing there. If anyone could have done anything, it was me, and I screwed up royally.

We stay quiet for a few long moments. I finish the food in that time, thinking on what's been on my mind for the past few days. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and look at Shepard. "Can I ask you something?" I ask quietly.

"Shoot," she replies, raising an interested eyebrow.

"Why did you take accept me into the team?" I speak my mind, the question that was bothering me for a genuinely long time. "I mean, right now I'm a bit competent, but back then I was... I was practically useless. Even now I'm still nowhere close to being as fast, as strong or as smart as any of you. In comparison, I'm... nothing special."

She stays quiet for an uncomfortably long moment, where she just looks at me until she finally speaks. "I accepted you because you do have something special. Something that not many people have, human or aliens," she says, looking straight into my eyes. I give her a questioning look, asking her to elaborate. "You volunteered to help. Simple as that. Even when you knew that you had nothing special to bring into the team, you still wanted to help. Even before that, when we just met, you helped me with no obvious benefit to yourself, which is unusual considering the lot you hang out with. After that, you went out of your way, against your employer and saved Tali, without anyone asking you to do it. I know more than a dozen people who will simply stand aside and let other people handle it. You did the exact opposite. There aren't many people like you in this galaxy. You wanted to help, and who am I to stop you from doing it?"

I'm officially speechless by the time she finishes talking. I feel elation that Shepard thinks highly of me, but it's tainted by a little bitterness from the fact that she's not completely right. I'm in this universe only for the sole purpose of helping you. If you only knew, Shepard, if you only knew. You'd think differently then. Her next words put my brain into a complete halt.

"You're a good man, Alex. Don't let anyone, yourself included, to tell you otherwise," she says and stands up, patting my shoulder when she passes me by. "Get some sleep. You still have a few hours left. We have a very long day ahead of us," she says without turning, before she disappears into her quarters.

I sit there for a very long while, thinking about what she said to me. I simply have no idea how to react. No one has every said anything like that to me. Honestly, I don't consider myself that much of a good person. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not exactly the best human example out there. Yeah, I don't really view myself in high regard. What Shepard just told me... I have no idea what to feel about it. I'm both confused, immensely flattered and bitterly doubtful.

With a sigh I get up, place the empty lunch box on the counter, not really caring what the owner might say, and go to do what Shepard suggested me to do. Not that it will work. With all the stuff on my mind, and the stuff we're going to face, I doubt I'll manage to catch some proper sleep again.

* * *

><p>Damn you, Shepard! Thanks for making me feel all flattered and confused and shit! Sleep has, obviously, eluded me and I ended up just lying on my bunk for several hours, staring at the ceiling and thinking about things. Most of them random. Some of them were about worst-case scenario. Few about Shepard's opinion on me. Just wasted several hours doing nothing, really.<p>

Did that until my timer ran out and I got into my hardsuit, picked up all my weapons and got completely geared up for the mission. I made sure to grab a few extra grenades and load up on onmi-gel. If I'm going into the proverbial hell, I'm definitely going to stack up on everything I can. One Virmire-class clusterfuck was enough for me. Yeah, Virmire is now part of a new personal ranking system.

With all my preparations done, I go up to the bridge and arrive just in time for the show. Ilos is visible just outside, and it's getting closer, including the dozen or so geth ships I can spot. Shepard is already here and looks like Liara and Tali want join in on the fun as well. I take another glance at the geth ships, which we are getting awfully close to. "Have they picked us up yet?" I ask, announcing my presence.

"The stealth systems _are_ engaged. Unless we get close enough for a visual they won't have any idea we're here," Joker answers.

"I'm picking up some strange readings from the planet surface!" Pressly announces suddenly.

"Take us down Joker," Shepard orders, leaning on Jokers chair, her eyes narrowing as she looks at the planet. "Lock in on the coordinates."

"Negative on that Commander! The closest landing zone is two klicks away," Pressly quickly intervenes.

"There's no way we will make it in time on foot. Anything closer?" Tali asks.

"There is nowhere closer! I've looked!" Pressly yells, a hint of frustration entering his voice as his eyes furiously roam across his screen.

"Drop us in the Mako," Shepard interrupts, as if that solved the problem, though that doesn't stop Pressly from objecting. His eyes leave his screen and he fully turns to Shepard. "You need at least a hundred meters of open terrain to pull off a drop like that. The most I can find near Saren is twenty!"

"Twenty? That's not enough!" Liara breathes out.

"We have to try! Do we have any other choice?" I add my input. This drop is more than possible, and I know it for sure... but twenty meters is not a lot, and it's scaring the crap out of me. "Is there another landing zone?"

"_There is no other landing zone!_" Pressly yells at me, angrily pointing at his screen, which, for the record, I have no idea what it's even showing.

"The descent angle's too steep," Tali points out grimly.

"It's our only option," Liara counters, not sounding pleased with it herself.

"It's not an option! It's a suicide -" Pressly begins but is interrupted by – in my opinion – Joker's moment of glory.

"I can do it," Joker says suddenly. Those four words effectively cast a deafening silence upon the whole group as everyone, almost in unison, sharply look at Joker. I internally grin.

"Joker?" Shepard cautiously asks.

"I can do it," Joker repeats, this time with a lot more conviction in his voice.

Shepard turns to us, noting that I'm pretty much the only one who is already fully geared up. "Gear up and head to the Mako!" She barks out and turns to Joker and gives him a vicious grin. "Joker, drop us right on top of that bastard!"

Oh, hell yeah! I'm liking the sound of that! Sweet mother of god. This is it. The final mission. The final run. One more run, and we're finally done with Saren... unless we fail of course, which is unlikely. Our team are currently the biggest badasses in the galaxy, and Saren has absolutely nothing on us! Damn, hard to believe that we're this close to the end.

I'm still shocked that I somehow survived until now.

I quickly run to the elevator. Have to tell Garrus to get the Mako ready for a most nasty run. And if we're lucky, which is very sadly unlikely, we might just have a very nasty turian Spectre stain on it as too.

* * *

><p><strong>Well... fuck yeah! Ilos begins next chapter! Damn awesome if you ask me. And so am I. But that's just my opinion. Now, if I'm lucky, next chapter will be out soon, but considering the length I'm planning... it might be out in the span of a week. Ugh. Let's hope nothing bothers me!<br>**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and read this story! Your support continuosly amazes me and brings me immense joy... so keep reading and reviewing! It makes me happy! And a happy Delvaro, is a writing Delvaro! So... thanks for the support. Be sure to leave me your thoughts, opinions and whatever else you might want to say with a review or a pm! Constructive criticism is especially welcomed. Love you people, see you later! Delvaro out.  
><strong>


	47. Chapter 47

**I'm back! And back as a failure. Yeah, right, finish the story in 12 days. Uhhuh. Whatever I said. Next time, don't believe me. I even gave myself false hope. Let's just say that I had way too many things distracting me. I've had all these annoying RL stuff to do, and... well, Brutal Legend is quite possible the best game I've played in a long, long time! Amazing. So... yeah. Got delayed and stuff. Still, I got this chapter out before my vacation finished so it's a good thing. Tomorrow I'm off to work again, so I have no idea when I'll have the next chapter done. Soon enough I hope.**

**Now, enjoy the chapter! You've been waiting long enough for it anyway!**

* * *

><p>"Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"<p>

Yeah. I'm not ashamed that I'm screaming like a little girl. Were in a goddamn nosedive, so excuse me while I scream myself hoarse. I am so glad that I can't see what's going on outside, otherwise I'd pass out or something. The Mako is probably the most insane thing I encountered in my life. The old Russian nickname for our early Russian cars comes to mind. A metal grave on wheels. In this case, a plummeting grave on wheels. Fucking great.

My stomach does this weird thing, dropping lower and then suddenly flying into my back as the Mako suddenly slows down in it's plummet and straightens itself for landed. A second later, the vehicle jerks violently and comes to a stop. I breathe heavily, heart pounding in my ears, staring ahead of me until I finally snap out of it. I wince in pain and rub my knee, since I hit Wrex with it during the landing. Holy crap. We made it in one piece!

"Climb out!" Shepard barks out and we do just that, though it takes us a bit of time. Shepard decided that for this mission, we're throwing everything we have at Saren. Which means, the whole ground team. The Mako is small enough as it is already, and with the whole ground team inside, it's a tight fit. I climb out after Wrex and survey the area, though I'm honestly more glad about standing on the ground, and not plummeting at high speeds.

Saren sealed the door behind him, just as I knew he would, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. "We have to get inside this bunker before Saren finds the Conduit," Tali says, inspecting the door. "There's no way we will get past this door with brute force."

"Saren found some way to open it," Wrex points out. "There must be some kind of security override in this place," he says, looking around at the odd buildings.

"We'll have to find some way to get it up and running again," Tali agrees.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" Shepard says, pulling out her handgun.

I'll take it as a sign and do the same thing. I doubt this rifle will be as good as the last one, but it should serve it's purpose. Silly me, getting attached to a rifle...

With that, we carefully move out. No one's sure of what is waiting for us – other than me, but I don't count – we're moving from cover to cover, just in case that there's an ambush in wait. We barely move ten meters away from the Mako when the first geth rears it's flashlight head... which is immediately shot with a single sniper round. It didn't even have time to raise it's weapon. I take a look at Garrus, who shrugs somewhat sheepishly.

With the element of surprise somewhat easily taken from them, the rest of the geth decide to openly attack now. Several other geth platforms move out of cover and open fire, but against the entire ground team, they don't manage to do much other than a few glancing shots on Shepard's shields, who was in the lead and their first target.

We move up the path and through the ruins, with our opposition being several geth troopers hiding behind ancient rock rubble and their energy barriers. Once again, they don't prove to be much of a challenge against the entire ground team. I think that nothing short of a juggernaut, or maybe even a prime, will actually make us stop.

Advancing forward, we reach a pair of huge rock blocks in the middle of a courtyard-like place. I have a feeling that something is very... wrong. Considering Saren has a literal army of geth, for him to leave just a handful of geth behind to stop _us_? It's almost insulting. I move past the rock and immediately regret it. With a mechanic roar – can I even call it a roar? They don't actually scream, just... make a loud digital noise – the two geth armatures unfold and aim their flashlight heads at us.

By the Nine - I take it back! I take it back! I move back behind the rock just as the armature charges a shot. The rock shakes and a lot of dust is kicked up, but thankfully no one is actually hurt by that. "Wrex!" Shepard shouts, catching the krogan's attention. "Therum!" Wrex looks confused for a second until his eyes widen and he nods in understanding.

Uh, I'm missing something here. Wrex and Shepard put away their weapons and biotic energies erupt from them while the rest of us keep the armatures distracted. Oh! I get it now! At the same time, both Shepard and Wrex come out of cover and biotically grab the closest armature. It slowly lifts up into the air, unable to do anything other than make some weird digital noises, and there it slowly turns upside down. The second armature sees this and slugishly turns around in the direction of Wrex and Shepard, not that it will make it in time. While the armatures had some serious firepower, they were too slow and simply not flexible enough against a mobile opponent. However, unlike what happened back on Therum, the captured armature isn't slammed into the ground. Instead, they slam it into the closest threat: the second armature. There's a loud noise of metal hitting metal that I can't help but wince over, and after the dust settles down I can see the two armature lying in a tangled heap, but not done yet. Something I can help with, I guess. I pull out a couple of grenades and toss them into the geth pile. Two explosions later, the armatures are not moving anymore.

"Hah! That was fun," Wrex remarks jovially.

"No time to stand around, let's move!" Shepard says and leads us on. Yeah, we're kinda in a hurry after all.

She leads us forward, where a lone geth was waiting for us. It didn't manage to do anything other than raise it's rifle. Once the geth was taken care of, we find a large, overgrown pathway through the building. With a second of thought, Shepard leads us through it.

"You know, this place is creepy as hell," I comment as we pass by several of these freaky statues. Doubly so, considering I know how a Prothean looks like, well, how a collector looks like, and these statues have no resemblance to them.

"It's fascinating," Liara remarks as she takes a quick look around. "It's one of the most preserved Prothean ruins I've ever seen. If only we had more time to look around..." she trails off wistfully.

"Well, once all this is over, you can probably come back to this place to start an official excavation or something," I reply, a little bit awkwardly, because I know she's not going to do this. In fact, the Liara I know now won't really be there anymore. Instead, I'll have Info-broker Liara.

"Maybe," she agrees with me.

We reach another courtyard, where another group of geth is waiting for us. "No time for chit-chat!" Shepard barks as she gets behind a slab of rock. I do the same, taking cover behind the same rock. There's a geth destroyer with this group, but thankfully it's not really bothering to take any cover, so it should be simple enough to take care of it.

A fountain of sparks erupts from the destroyer, courtesy of an overload from one of our team, I don't know who, and it only makes our job easier, now that the destroyer's shields are nearly gone. Within several seconds, the destroyer falls down, peppered with holes, and we turn our attention to the other troopers. I aim my fire at a small group huddled behind a large crate but before I can fire there's a purple pules and a split second later something that looks like a black holes pops out of nowhere, the geth troopers that were near it starting to float helplessly in the air. I shoot one of them down but before I can take out another one, Shepard launches a biotic attack, and the purple orb hits the singularity. With a mighty biotic explosion, the remaining geth are literally torn apart.

Simply _awesome_.

Several shots whistle over my head and I switch my aim at the elevated balcony to our left, where a single geth trooper was taking pot shots at us. Before I can pull the trigger, a sniper shot catches the trooper in the head, making it disappear from view in a shower of sparks. "Hey! Leave something to me!" I snap at Garrus, who just chuckles in response. Damn, I barely even manage to shoot anything before it dies!

Since there are no more geth shooting at us, it's relatively safe to move on. The plan is so simple that even I can see it. Keep following the trail of geth, because if they're here, it means they're guarding something. And that something is exactly what we need.

We move up a trail that leads upwards but before we can complete our climb a geth hopper lands in front of us, only for Shepard to send it flying back with a biotic pulse. As if on a signal, more hoppers start jumping around. "Keep them still!" Shepard yells and our biotics gladly comply. Liara launches another singularity that manages to catch two of the hoppers and Wrex stops one with a biotic lift. Garrus doesn't even need biotics. He shoots one right out of the air mid-jump, letting the lifeless platform plummet down to the ground. I don't bother shooting this time, instead opting for an Overload which I send on the geth in the singularity. It fries one of the hoppers but before it can do anything else, Liara detonates the singularity with another biotic attack. Before I know it, the rest of the hoppers are finished and the area is clear, leaving an open path to the door at the end of the pillar-filled courtyard.

The door, turns out to be an elevator. We all get inside and Shepard hesitantly presses the button. I can kinda understand her hesitation. All the prothean tech she touched so far either sent her into a coma or gave her nightmare inducing visions. Sadly, the elevator is rather slow, which is quite disappointing. I'd have expected the oh-so-mighty Protheans to at least master the power of fast elevators. Meh, I guess I should be glad it's even operational after all this time.

"This place still has power," Wrex remarks with some interest. "It must be running off it's own generator."

"I bet this is the command center for the entire complex. Saren's troops must have sealed the doors from here after he went inside," Tali speculates. Damn, that's a very, very accurate guess, because she's so right! "We'll have to figure out how to disengage the security lockdown if we ever want to get inside that bunker."

Easier said than done. The elevator finally reaches the bottom and we pile outside into a dark corridor, though there is a bit of sunlight that still manages to get inside. We come out into a large room, with a couple of catwalks above us. I'm almost too busy marveling the room to notice Tali. "Look out!"

I look at what Tali yells about and see another geth destroyer, charging his way to us. We all open fire but Wrex easily stops his charge with a well placed biotic shockwave. The destroyer trips and falls down to the floor with a loud ruckus, though it's not dead yet, which is something we will quickly fix. I launch another Overload at the destroyer while Tali throws a grenade at it. I don't bother to look if that grenade finished it off, mostly because the others will finish it off. Instead I run out of the corridor to take cover behind a statue, because we're too exposed out here in this corridor and while that destroyer charged at us, the other geth troopers took advantageous positions.

From behind that statue I can easily see what we're dealing with, and to my horror, other than the handful of regular troopers that are firing at us, I can easily spot the towering form of a geth prime. "Prime!" I yell over to the rest of the team, just so they'll know to.

The crack of Garrus' sniper rifle fills my ears and a geth trooper falls down. Good, looks like they're finished with the destroyer. Another biotic shockwave flies out and makes a couple of geth leave their cover in order to avoid it. I easily take care of one with a couple of well placed bursts. Huh, this rifle isn't half bad...

Soon enough, only the Prime remained and we put all our attention to it. The prime was relatively slow, and we were attacking it from several different locations. It had to split it's attention. The thing about geth is that they focus on who they figured was the biggest threat. Considering that designation changed every second whenever someone landed a very damaging hit, the geth prime was essentially doomed. It completely focused it's attention on Shepard, probably an order from Saren, but it left us ample opportunity to shoot at it as we pleased. A couple of overloads later, several well placed sniper-shots, a handful of biotic attacks and many, many other rounds fired, the prime finally falls down, unable to handle all the damage it suffered.

With that, the room is empty. Still, we cautiously move onward. No sense in not being careful, considering how many times the geth tried to ambush us by now. On the other side of the chamber we see a small room, placed over another long corridor. I can see a small window from here, and something inside... flickers? "Let's check out that room," I suggest, pointing at the window. With a shrug, Shepard takes the lead.

There's no resistance on the way there, so I'll take a guess and assume that we finished off everything that Saren left for us. "Look like this is the place," Liara says after a quick look around once we step into the room. "Try this panel," she suggests to Shepard, who already saw said panel and was already approaching it.

As if sensing her presence, the panel activates once Shepard walk up to it and a green holographic display pops up. "Come on. Saren's already got a headstart," Tali hurries her. "We have to catch up before he reaches the Conduit," Shepard does exactly that.

"Unless he already found it," Wrex pipes in, not very helpfully if I have to say. "Then, we're just walking into a trap."

"That's a chance we'll have to take," Tali replies, rather coldly.

While this is going on, an orange and highly distorted hologram appears over the panel and something that sounds like... gibberish can be heard through the static. It immediately catches everyone's attention and they all look at it. Yeah. That's total gibberish. I have no idea what it's saying. Although... I look at Shepard and see her listening with rapt attention, her brow slightly furrowed. "You understand this," I say, more of a statement than a question. Weird how in the game it spoke English and here it's... Prothean? Huh, so that's how their language sounds.

Shepard looks at me in confusion. "You can't?" she asks, genuinely surprised. Huh, she didn't know she could understand Prothean?

"It's Prothean!" Liara breathes out. "This recording is 50,000 years old, no wonder it's so damaged but it's an actual voice recording of the Prothean language!" she says excitedly and then looks at the Commander. "What does it say?"

Wow, she's almost... going fangirl about all this. Shepard looks to be slightly awkward by the attention but replies. "It's all broken up, but I recognize some of the words. It's a warning against the Reaper invasion."

"Amazing!" Liara gasps out, looking the most excited I've ever seen her. "The Cipher must have transferred an understanding of the Prothean language into you!"

The recording speaks again, and we again look at Shepard, who is now our resident Prothean translator. "Anything useful?" I ask.

Shepard doesn't reply immediately, instead listening closely to whatever words she could hear. "It said _something_ about the Conduit, but it's too degraded to be of any help," she says and sighs with obvious disappointment. "Let's go. I've opened the bunker."

We leave the room, though I see Liara sending a wistful look at the hologram before she follows the Commander. Yeah, she definitely wants to find out more. Well, she'll have more time in the future, I hope.

We descend down to the main floor and from there we move through the second corridor, where in the end we find another elevator. Thankfully, this elevator is a little bit faster and we ascend back to the surface within seconds. When the doors open we move outside, weapons shouldered and ready for us, just in case. I spot the wreckage that used to be a pair of armatures and realize that we're almost back where we started. Shepard sees this too and she breaks into a light jog in the direction of the Mako and we quickly follow.

"Okay, who votes we take the vehicle into the creepy, underground bunker?" Tali remarks, giving us a look.

"Good idea," Wrex agrees, making me look at him oddly. "The firepower will come in handy," ah, it's about firepower. Everything's fine then.

"Everyone get in! Garrus, take the cannon!" Shepard barks and jumps into the vehicle. I climb inside after Tali and take a seat beside her and once again, in front of Wrex. Damn, my knees won't handle this much longer. Wrex takes up way too much space in this already cramped vehicle. With a loud roar from the engine, the Mako starts moving into the bunker.

I crane my neck in order to look out of the Mako and I see what basically amount to an empty water filled roar. There's absolutely nothing there. Wrex notices it too. "I thought Saren would have set some sort of an ambush, or a trap for us. They must have been in too much of a hurry."

I snort at that. "Or we just haven't reached the trap yet," I call back over the engine noise. It seems highly unlikely that Saren would put a trap barely a hundred meters away from the door. It should be further inside. We reach the end of the long road, where much to my horror, the road goes down before it continues. As I expected, Shepard doesn't slow down and we jump all the way down and land with a violent jerk. My leg slams against Wrex's knee and I wince in pain. Wrex just grunts in amusement before he turns to look outside.

"What are those things on the wall?" He asks. I turn to look too, nursing my already bruised legs, and I see them. Pods, mounted on the wall. If you ask me, seems like a very ineffective place to store your stasis pods.

"They look like stasis pods," Tali replies. "The Protheans probably tried to keep themselves alive using cryogenic freezing. Something must've gone wrong though," here, her voice turned sour. "This bunker became their tomb. The pods are dead... and so is everyone inside."

"All of them?" Wrex asks quietly, not looking very enthused about this knowledge. "There must be hundreds of those pods..." he trails off, and then shakes his head. "What is Saren expecting to find here? There's nothing left but corpses."

"I assume that these guys probably worked on the Conduit, or guarded it or something, back when they were still alive. Why else the Conduit will be in this... tomb?" I supply my shot of info.

The canon suddenly fires and we all look at the road. "Geth up ahead, though nothing special. I'm almost insulted. He really expected three troopers to stop us?" Garrus asks in mock hurt. There's more machinegun fire but a few second later, it stops. We descend further down into the bunker, Shepard expertly – I'm surprised I can associate that word with her driving – avoid all the tree roots that grew through the ceiling and floor. "Uh, what is that?"Garrus cautiously asks.

I turn to look and I see that the road ahead of us is blocked by... an energy wall. Ah, we finally reached that VI. "Look like an energy barrier," I casually reply. Shepard doesn't say anything, instead simply driving closer.

"What?" Liara gasps in surprise and I turn to look what's the matter. Out of the small window in the back of the Mako we can see that another barrier popped out of nowhere. Shepard pulls the breaks and we stop. We have nowhere to go now.

"It's a trap!" Wrex announces. "Saren must have set an ambush!"

"I don't think Saren's behind this..." Tali muses quietly.

"Yeah, no geth..." I agree with her.

"There's an open door here," Shepard says, looking to the side. "an obvious invitation, if you ask me," she remarks and with that, she orders us out.

I jump out into the shallow water and move over to the door, where I find another elevator. I don't bother pulling out my weapon, because there's nothing he that will hurt me. Of course, the others don't know this, so they're giving me an odd look, to which I reply with a shrug. "If it was an ambush, they'd already be shooting us..."

Shepard looks thoughtful at that, but eventually gives her own shrug and enters the elevator and we start going down. "If this was an automated trap, Saren would've triggered it," Tali thinks aloud and then looks at us. "What do you think it is?"

"Don't get your hopes up. The only thing we can count on is ourselves," Wrex quickly shoots down the discussion that might've started. A shame. I wanted to hear Liara's theory, and from her expression, she wanted to say it too.

The elevator finally stops and we come out into a large chamber. Straight ahead of us there is a short walkway ending with another panel. Once we step close enough, it lights up and another distorted hologram appears. With a furrowed brow, Shepard approaches closer. And then, much to the surprise of anyone but me, the hologram speaks.

"You are not Prothean. But you are not machine, either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons."

"Looks like some kind of VI program. Pretty badly damaged," Wrex remarks, looking at the distorted hologram with distaste.

"A shame," I say. I would've loved to see a pre-huskification Prothean, just for the heck of it.

"I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you. Unlike the other one who passed recently. Perhaps there is still hope."

"Wait... how come can I understand you? Why are you not speaking the Prothean language?" Liara asks suddenly.

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend. My name is Vigil. You are safe here, for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe.

"Are you some kind of an AI?" Shepard asks.

"I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Ilos research facility.

"Why did you bring us here?"

I let out an internal sigh. It's pretty annoying to hear stuff that I already know, and then having to act as if I hear it for the first time. Frustrating as hell. Thus, I take the time to marvel the room... or more correctly, the tomb. There are more of the pods here. More graves. Pretty tragic if you ask me. They tried to preserve themselves, to keep themselves alive but the thing they hoped for only came at the beginning on the next cycle, way past their time. If only the other races actually did anything about this earlier, perhaps found Ilos... found Vigil... perhaps they would be ready for the Reapers now. For humanity, 50,000 years is a very, very long time. Tens of thousands of generations. For the asari, it's been like... fifty generations, give or take a couple more. It's not that long time for them. How come they never stumbled on places like Ilos? Or another VI that could warn them? Bah, I don't think I'll ever get these answers anytime soon.

I turn back to the conversation just to see Shepard getting the news about the real purpose of the Citadel. "The Reapers can wipe out the Council and the entire Citadel fleet in one surprise attack!" she exclaims.

"That was our fate. Our leaders were dead before we even realized we were under attack. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel, and through it, the Mass Relays. Communication and transportation across our empire was crippled. Each star system was isolated, cut off from the others. Easy pray for the Reaper fleets. Over the next decades, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people. World by world. System by system. They methodically wiped us out.

"Why didn't you surrender? You might've lived..." Shepard asks, though her expressions tells me she already knows the answer.

"No offer of surrender was ever given. Our enemy had a single goal: the extinction of all advanced organic life. Through the Citadel, the Reapers had access to all our records, maps, census data. Information is power, and they knew everything about us."

Wow, that... sucks. How many Reapers are there anyway? A shiver travels down my spine when I remember the ending of the second game. Too many. With a cold feeling I realize that what Sovereign said about their fleets darkening the sky of every planet held some truth in it. They... have enough ships to accomplish it. By the nine hells... how the fuck are we supposed to win against something like this?

"Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy. They were relentless, brutal and absolutely thorough."

"You said you brought me here for a reason. Tell me what I need to do."

"The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries of mass relay technology. Ilos was a top-secret facility. Here, the researches worked to created a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel, the hub of the relay network."

"The Conduit is not a weapon! It's a back door onto the Citadel!" Wrex says in understanding.

Vigil then explains how they survived the initial invasion. How one by one, Vigil had to disconnect the life support of everyone in order to preserve energy, and then how they altered the keepers to stop the initial invasion. I... can't approve, but I also can't disapprove what Vigil did. It's terrible, yes, but... if not for his actions, we'd already be dead. The keepers would've activated the relay, and the full Reaper invasion would've started. It's... I can't help but feel sad for them. They died for a good cause, but they're still dead.

"So that's why Saren needs the Conduit!" Shepard says in understanding. "He can bypass all their defenses and activate the relay manually!"

"Correct. And the cycle of extinction will begin again."

"Is there any way we can stop them?"

"There is a data file in my console. Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station. It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control of the station. It might give you a chance against Sovereign.

"Thank you. Grab the data file and let's go! Saren's got enough of a headstart already!"

"The one you call Saren has not reached the Conduit. Not yet. There is still hope if you hurry," with those parting words, Vigil disappears from view. Shepard quickly approaches his console and takes the needed data files and from there we run into the elevator.

"It's tragic," Tali says once we're inside. "For all their achievements, the Protheans lost everything, just like my people. Even their last plan failed..." she finishes somberly.

"If we won't hurry, we might end up just like them," Shepard replies grimly just as the door opens and the Mako comes into view. The energy barriers are no longer there. We run out and pile into the vehicle. "Someone take the cannon!"

Oddly enough, Garrus is already inside the Mako, and is not manning the cannon, and considering I'm one of the last people who will enter the Mako this leaves... me? Huh? Shepard is looking at me expectantly. "Wha... what about Garrus?" I ask in confusion.

"No time! Get inside! Now!" She shouts as she takes the driver's seat. Aww, damn! I do the same and take the cannon controls. "Other than Garrus and me, you're the only one here who used the cannon before," is her simple explanation. "Buckle up and get ready. Shoot everything that moves but don't get too focused on them because I'm not stopping for anything!" and with that, the engine roars and the Mako starts moving.

We finally clear the corridor and reach an incline. On the far end I can see what appears to be small... lights? I zoom in and realize that these are not light. "Rockets!" I warn and Shepard swerves away from their path. I see the small geth a long distance from us firing another volley. I return it with cannon fire. Shepard dodges those rockets too, and I don't see anymore rockets coming. I guess that one cannon shot was enough. We reach the first turn and without slowing down at the slightest, Shepard turns the vehicle sharply, enough for on side of it to rise off the ground. God dammit! Why does the Mako have to be so bouncy?! At this rate, we'll never reach the Conduit in time because Shepard might just end up landing the Mako in a ditch, or somehow land it upside down after an unnecessary jump...

Ugh, the mood sucks, and everyone is so grim. And then, an idea strikes me. Well, technically I already had this idea before, but I remembered it just now. It's just something that I've thought of doing before and... well, now I have the opportunity, so why the hell not?

I open my omni-tool and then search through my playlist, stopping on one particular song and pressing play. Electric guitar chord come out of my external speakers, making everyone look at me – even Shepard, making her turn her eyes away from the road – in complete and utter confusion. Hell yeah. There is no other song that can fit into this situation as well as Highway to Hell.

"Really?" Shepard asks with a raised eyebrow. Oh, so she does know this song! Makes it all the better.

"Yes. Really. Now can you please watch the road?" I ask pleasantly, spotting more geth ahead of us.  
>"Seriously? Highway to Hell?" she repeats, still not looking at the road.<p>

"Uh, _geth?_" I reply, exaggeratedly pointing at the geth we're only getting closer to. A rocket hits us, but it barely even scratches our shields. I open fire at them with the machinegun, taking out a couple of them but I miss the third one. Shepard takes care of that by simply driving over him without even looking. "Yes, Shepard. Really! If the music fits, it fits! And for this occasion, it fits very well! Now stop questioning my metal and watch the goddamn road!" I exclaim angrily when I spot a bigger threat: a colossus.

"What does an element have to do with anything?" I hear Liara's very, very confused question.

"Metal is the music you're currently listening to!" I exclaim as I shoot the colossus with everything I have, not that I does much at first glance. Shepard dodges an energy shot. "Now," Shepard dodges a second round. "I'll teach you everything about humanity's greatest achievement once we get out of here, okay?" Damn, Shepard is not slowing down and the Mako is constantly bouncing, so my aim is utter shit! Thankfully, the colossus is big enough that I don't really have to aim either way.

"It's a human thing," I hear Wrex say to Liara

"Uh, Shepard?" I ask cautiously when Shepard doesn't appear to be dodging anymore. We're moving straight to the big-ass killing machine. "_Shepard?_" I urge out a response from her when the colossus charges up a shot. It releases it and... it flies right over us! Shepard then drives the Mako right between the colossus' legs... well, tries to, I think. She clips one of it's legs and causes the thing to fall down, though I think it works even better, now that I think of it. I turn the turret around to look at our handywork to see the colossus on the floor, unable to shoot us now. "Awesome!" I say with a laugh.

"Damn right it is! You don't question my driving skills!" Shepard replies heatedly.

With the threat behind us, the ride from here should be calm. And it is. Other than a handful of rocket trooper blockades, we don't encounter anything serious. I either shoot them down with our turret, or Shepard rams them with the Mako, which evidently, the Commander greatly enjoys doing, judging by the cheer she's letting out each time a geth trooper is swallowed under the vehicle. I almost casually bob my head along with the song. It actually calmed me down a bit, which is good. Otherwise I'd be an even shittier cannon-operator than I already am.

And not before too long, we reach the final turn in this annoying road and a straight road is in front of us. In the end of that road, something glows faintly. Yeah. We're almost there. We clear the road the reach the downward hill without slowly. We have some lovely air time there and we land with thud and the whole view opens in front of us. Just like a regular relay, only smaller, pointed up into the sky, with an almost blindingly bright blue glow. "There is is!" I announce.

"Hold on tight! We don't have time to admire the view!" Shepard barks out.

"Holy shit, that's a lot of geth!" I say when I spot the four geth colossi guarding the thing two from each side. "How are we getting past them?"

"Don't bother! Just hold onto something. That thing's going to close soon, and I'm not going to be stuck here!" Shepard yells and pushes the Mako to it's maximum speed.

She's right. In the game there was barely a minute to reach the Conduit. Taking out those walking turrets will take too long. We'll have to drive by and hope for the best. One round flies over the vehicle. The second one nearly hits our side. The third one lands, shaking the vehicle but the shields save us from any damage. Twenty seconds spent here. We're only halfway through. Shepard jumps the Mako over another round, but lands on another one, making our landing rather jerky and making us lose some speed. Goddammit! Shields are on 40%. Warnings are blaring with each hit. We're almost there! Fifteen meters. Another two rounds hit us and the shields drop to 15%. Another hit like that and we're screwed! Ten meters, now five. Another blue round flies right in front of us, impacting the ground and obscuring the view. Our shields drop to 7%. We burst through the dust cloud and hit the ramp and jump into the air.

For a second, nothing happens. It's almost as if... as if time slowed down. I register several things. How bright the glowing Conduit is. How the song has just reached the end, and how great my timing was for it to be this way. How another round missed us and now is just flying over us. And then it hits me. An unnatural pressure crushes me into my seat, my head slams back and I'm unable to tear it off the seat. The same pressure crushes my throat too, and to my horror I find that I'm unable to draw breath. The Conduit's glow suddenly reaches unbearable intensity and then...

The glow vanishes and I see nothing.

* * *

><p><strong>Aaaaaand... we done! Ilos is finished! Hah! I bet you thought I'll draw this out like Virmire and make it last like 2 chapters or something. Nope! Finished it in one! Now, we have the Citadel left, so... yeah, it's going to be interesting. And right after that, the finale! 3 chapters left until the end. So close!<strong>

**Wow. I missed my opportunity to say this during the last chapter... but it's been a year since this story started! And I really want to say thank you to all the people who've been sticking with me since day 1. Thank you very much! You're awesome! And all the folks that came later... you're awesome too! Wow. Can't believe I'm almost done after a year... epic. Next chapter should come out soon. I'll do my best! Be sure to tell me what you thought of this chapter! Leave a review or a pm! I'm more than glad to recieve them and know what you think of this story! Once again, thanks for reading and until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	48. Chapter 48

**Hello people! I am once again back, and I once again apologize for the huge, and genuinely unexpected delay. The first half of this month was simply flooded with the shitty shifts, which, for the record, leave me with about 2 hours on the pc out of the whole day. As some of you might know, 2 hours of writing (usually less, since I have other things to do as well) is simply not enough. On my day offs I spent my time doing other stuff too, like Saints Row the Third (awesome game) which is pretty irresponsible of me. But who cares about that? I got this chapter out and there are only 2 chapters left!**

**Now, without more delays, enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

><p>Just as suddenly as everything started, as suddenly it finished. The crushing weight vanished, the blinding light dimmed, though I still couldn't see much and I could properly breathe again... for a total of a second until we crash into something. There's lots of noise and everything rocks violently and then we just stop. I groan and blink my eyes until I can finally see properly again. Oh, that explains why everything feels so strange. I'm upside down, still held by the harness. Shepard is already crawling out of the vehicle. "Is everyone fine?" she asks, her voice strained.<p>

A chorus of affirmatives and grunts is her answer. I try to remove the harness but for some reason I'm finding some difficulties in doing it. Maybe it's all the blood that's rushing to my head, I don't know. Being upside down ain't fun. With a loud click, I finally release myself out of the damn thing and gravity does the rest as I fall to the floor... or the roof, whatever. I crawl out after Shepard and get my first look at what's going on the Citadel.

It's definitely depressing, that's for sure. It's dark and the only things that generate some light are the emergency lights and some trees that are on fire. What did the geth have against trees anyway? Why set them on fire? Ugh, never mind. We're on the presidium, right next to the elevator that should take us to Saren. The whole place is completely unnatural with how empty it is. I used to jog here every morning and it's always filled with people. I glance up makes my breathe hitch.

Lots and lots of ships. Some, the closer ones, are easy to identify but some are just small dots. Streaks of light travel from one dot to another. Several explosions light up the whole view, like small stars until they vanish, replaced by new ones. Several large ships, turian by their design, form a barricade at the edge of the arms to stop anyone from getting into the vicinity of the station. People are dying there but... I can't help but admire the view slightly. It's morbidly beautiful to see it from a distance. God, I'm fucked up.

The sound of grounding metal makes me look at the elevator, where a couple of those spikes, dragon teeth I think they were called, lowered a couple of husks as we got close. I pull out my pistol and start firing. A couple of rounds in the chest and a third in the head drops one hust. Just like in my old target practice on those old security mechs. A shotgun blast from Tali downs the second one.

"Saren must've been in a hurry if that's all he left here to stop us," Wrex remarks with distaste.

"I think he expected those walkers back in the Conduit to stop us," I point out. Indeed, if he would've left a colossus here... we'd be totally screwed.

"Not like we have any time to lose either. Come on!" Shepard barks out in urgency, running to the elevator. We climb inside and we start climbing up. After a couple of seconds, to everyone's surprise, everything shudders. The Citadel itself shudder. I look at the arms to see them slowly start closing and with some dread, I look at the turian barriace that is in the distance. I know what to look for and I spot it immediately. Out of a dust cloud it comes out, red lightning arcing around it ominously, without slowing down, not really giving a damn about the turians firing at it. It simply rams through one of the ships like it's not even there and enters the Citadel just the arms close behind it. It's impossible to mistake the enormous dark ship for anything else.

Sovereign is here.

"Damn..." I breathe out, admittedly in awe. "That thing's huge..." the Reaper is only getting larger as it flying closer to the tower we're climbing. This is actually the first time I'm seeing Sovereign, a Reaper, in person, and I honestly wish I didn't. How the hell are going to defeat an_ army _of these things? It reaches the tip of the tower, where the Council chambers are and settles down there. A second later, our elevator stops in place.

"Suit up! We're going outside!" Shepard orders and we do just that. I check my seals, make sure my inbuilt oxygen supply is full and activate the magnetic boots. I've never actually had to use them before but... well, let's hope they work! Shepard shoots out the glass window and steps outside. It's awfully bizarre watching Shepard fall down out of the elevator, only to come to a stop barely after barely a meter of falling and just stand there on the wall beneath us. Even weirder to see everyone else doing it.

Okay... this should be simple enough! The small icon on my HUD tells me the mag boots are ready. I lean out of the elevator just like Shepard did and for a second I expect to fall down but instead I just... hover there. Oh. Ooh. Wow. I'm floating! Damn, so this is how it feels to be outside of gravity! Uh.. oh shit. I'm floating away! I quickly move my left to the floor, or the wall in this case, and to my relief I'm pulled to the surface. With a clang, they latch on and I shakily stand up. That was close. I can still walk easily enough but it takes some force to tear my feet off the surface. I won't be running around though, that's for sure. At least not with actual speed. Or maybe I just need practice, because Shepard is breaks into a light run, not hindered by her mag-boots in the slightest. Ugh, I probably have to calibrate them or something...

Shepard once again takes the lead. I clumsily follow everyone, still getting used to how this works. I can still run, well, sort of, but I need to do this weird hopping thing in order to make a step without the boot magnetizing to the floor mid-step. "Your first time?" Tali asks.

By the Nine Hells, even Tali knows how to properly do this, and she's younger than me. "If I knew how to properly move like this, I doubt I'd be looking like an idiot... like I'm doing right now," I grouse. "I take you did this before?" I ask in curiosity as we move further up the tower.

"There were a couple of times. One time we had a malfunction that caused the ship's gravity to turn off for a short while. The other time I was helping fix the exact same problem," she explains.

"Good for you," I say. "At least you don't look like an utter moron now," I drawl out as I struggle to keep up with everyone.

We descend to what a tunnel adjacent to what I assume is another elevator shaft and a second later I'm proven right when another elevator flies past us and stops just a way ahead of us. A split second later, glass shatters and several geth troopers file out of the elevator. We quickly take cover behind pillars and support frames and open fire. The ones closest to us are taken care of almost immediately. Since I still have the handgun, I don't bother switching it for the rifle yet. I open fire at the distant geth, not really expecting to actually hit them, but I do drive them back to cover, which give the rest of my team ample time to advance.

Kinda freaky if you ask me. The geth we just killed are just floating in place here aimlessly. Wrex doesn't really care, barreling through the lifeless platforms as if they're not even there. A well placed singularity causes the rest of the geth to leave their cover, those unlucky stuck floating aimlessly while the two that did escape it's grasp were quickly downed by Wrex.

With that, nothing else is shooting at us. "All clear," I announce needlessly. So what? I love saying that. We clear the tunnel and come out to a narrow passage filled with several large pillars. I'm not even going to try understanding the architectural design of this place. A couple more geth troopers are waiting for us there but before I can do anything Wrex pulls one to him biotically, tearing it off the ground and once the trooper floating close enough, he shot a blast from his shotgun in point blank range into the troopers head. The geth floats past Wrex, now without a head, and the krogan turns to the second trooper, who doesn't manage to do anything before a round tears through it's flashlight head and sends it floating away.

A rocket flies right over Wrex' head and our attention is immediately diverted to a destroyer on the other side of the passage. Oh, nope, there's two of them! The second one is charging us, and he's closing in fast. Luckily for us, I know exactly what to do. "Lift him!" I yell out. Shepard does exactly that. There's a blue pulse and the destroyer floats up, still keeping the momentum it build up in it's charge. It rises up, further and further away from us and out of reach. Shepard and I look at it's path for a couple of seconds before we turn back to the second destroyer, who just now got some backup in the form of a krogan. That was embarrassingly easy. Maybe the second destroyer will put up an actual fight.

I hear the telltale crack of Garrus' sniper rifle and a split second later I see the krogan collapse to the ground. What the... holy crap! Garrus let's out a triumphant bark of laughter and sets his sight on the destroyer. Goddamn. One shot, one kill. That's damn impressive, considering it's a krogan!

Wrex biotically launches himself at the last destroyer, knocking the hulking thing away from him. If gravity actually worked here, the destroyer would've probably got up. But here, the force of that charge sent the destroyer flying off into the wall and from there it slowly floated closer to the ground... but not fast enough. A couple of shotgun blasts to the flashlight head silences the destroyer for good. Wrex grunts what I started calling his disappointment grunt as he gave the destroyer a kick. "Is that all?" he asks aloud.

We move around the corner right into a literal wall of barriers up the path, which was quickly followed by a hail of gunfire. Luckily, despite being one of the first to move around the corner, I manage to get behind cover before any of these rounds get me. Still, this was a very close call. "Dammit, you just had to ask, didn't you?" I ask angrily, glaring at Wrex, who simply barks out a laugh and envelops himself in a biotic barrier and charges right up the elevated path.

With Wrex leading the charge, the geth are no match for us. Since he's the first one out of cover, they concentrate their fire on him, but with the barrier, his shields and his heavy armor he can soak up a surprising amount of fire from them. Not that there is any need for it anyway, because once we follow him they are easy targets for us.

We climb up the path and more geth reinforcements arrive to stop us. Or try to stop us, more accurately. A bunch of them take cover behind this... gun thingy, I guess, and refuse to budge. Well, to quote Shepard, we ain't stopping. I move around the thing to flank them with Liara following me close behind. I give her a quick look and make a pushing gesture with my free hand. She nods immediately and runs in front of me, biotics already flaring. We move around the thing and Liara launches her biotic push at the four geth that were just sitting there. The first geth crashes into the second and then they both crash into the third. One thing leads to another and in the end we have a bunch of tangled geth platforms flying off into the air. Or vacuum. Whatever. With path cleared, we move on.

Ugh, this just gives me all the wrong shivers. Sovereign is just getting bigger the closer we get. "Man, this thing is creepy," I remark as I look at it moving around the tower.

"Try talking to it," Shepard replies dryly. "That's even worse."

Further up the road I can tell that the resistance lessened. Other than two geth and another trio of destroyers, they don't launch that many geth at us.

Gotta say, the game is misleading as hell. There are awesome music there, explosions and whatever. Here, its rather rooted in reality, so there is no sound in space. It's all deathly quiet other than our own voice and our comm. It's giving me the creeps. Thankfully, we don't have to rely on sound as much because the shadow that passes over us causes us to look up and spot the geth dropship that flies dangerous low. Aw, shit. I think I remember this part. We follow the dropship's path and come to an open area, with said dropship blocking our way. A hatch opens on the dropship and multiple platforms drop down to engage us. I look around and stop several cannons, just waiting to be used. Yeah. I definitely remember this part. We have to hijack the cannons and defend them until they blow up the dropship. "Shepard!" I catch her attention and point at the cannons. "Use those things!"

Without replying Shepard rushes over to the closest cannon while the rest of us handle the ground units. Good. This will be over in a minute! Unless... Shepard suddenly decides to _not_ activate the cannons and run away from it instead. The hell? All is explained when a second later a large bolt of energy hits the cannon and engulfs it in a large explosion. When the light show ends, there's nothing left of it. I look at where the bolt came from and see the dropship's cannon turning towards the second defense system and unleash another bolt, taking it out without difficulty, before doing the same to the third.

_What. The. Fuck!_

_This never happened in the game!_ How... why... by the nine goddamned hells, how the fuck are we supposed to get rid of the dropship now!? "Get down!" Garrus yells and someone yanks me down to the floor when the dropship let's out a shot at our location. I'm so shocked by this turn of events that I stopped paying attention to the battlefield. Shit. I think this is going to take a while longer than I initially thought. Another bolt flies overhead, keeping us stuck in place and unable to do much against the advancing geth platforms. Yeah. A lot longer.

I risk rising out of cover and let out a volley of fire on the closest shock trooper. I take it out but the dozen or so geth platforms around it force me back into cover before I could do much else, but I did have enough time to see the dropship charging another shot. And then, like a gift from the gods, a small pair of glowing things, like streaks of light, slam into the dropship and erupt in a large explosion. This effectively brings the battle to a short stop as everyone, including several geth, turn to look to see what the hell is happening. The geth dropship is still hovering, but there are a couple of small holes on it's hull. And then four more streaks of light slam into it and engulf the whole thing in a one mighty explosion. There's a burst of static in our comm channel before a salarian voice breaks through. "_It looks like you needed some assistance,_" he said, almost apologetically.

Not a second later I see exactly where those streaks of light, the _missiles_, came from. A gunship, a mantis gunship if I'm correct, comes flying over us and opens fire with it's machineguns. The geth try to shoot back but against that thing they're unable to do much. What catches my attention though, is the black-armored turian that's attached to the side of cockpit, apparently holding for dear life? What the hell is he doing there? And then, the turian simply lets go of the ship. At first, I think he was planning to jump down to the geth, but then I remember that there is no gravity here and to my horror realize that the turian will now float aimlessly until he crashes into something. Then, for the second time in the span of 4 seconds, I'm proven wrong again, when steams of fire come out of several places on the armor and the turian literally flies into the throng of remaining geth. Oh my god. Is that a fucking _jetpack_?!

The turian lands in the middle of what remained of the geth, a total of three geth platforms, blasts the first one away with his shotgun – which he was holding with one hand, I have to add – and then slams a long, serrated dagger into the second's visor and turns to the last one, who just raised it's rifle in a futile attempt to defend itself. "Enough," the angry turian growls, a voice I instantly recognize. He slams the dagger into the base of the geth's neck, causing the white fluid that flows through these platforms to spray out. "_is enough!_" he yells out, yanking out the blade and cutting off the geth's head along with it, quickly following with a point blank shotgun blast to the platform's abdomen, which tears everything apart and causes the torso to disconnect from the legs. "I've had it with these _motherfucking_ geth, on this _motherfucking_ station!" with that, he kicks the legs away, letting the poor platform float away in three pieces.

Needless to say, I'm stunned. Everyone else too. Mostly because I know who it is. "Joe?! What the fuck?" I exclaim in pure shock.

The turian, obviously Jorrun, turns around to look at us, casually placing his shotgun on his shoulder. "Hah! Should've known it would be you up here."

"What's all..." I'm fighting for words here so in the end I simply gesture at him. "this!"

To say the least, Jorrun's gear look totally badass. It's all black, with some gray camo patterns on it. A bandolier of grenades is strapped around his chest and what suspiciously looks like a grenade launcher is on his back, along with an assault rifle. He casually wipes his serrated blade on his shoulder pauldron before he places it to the sheathe on the bandolier. "This? Ah, just decided to wipe the dust off some of my old equipment from military days."

"That's not regular military equipment," Garrus remarks as he inspects Jorrun's armor. No shit! This thing has inbuilt _jetpack!_

"Who says I was in regular military?" Joe shoots back.

"Not that I mind the help, but what are you doing here?" Shepard breaks into the conversation.

"When the geth suddenly pulled their forces back and directed everything they had to this place, we just had to see why. Imagine my surprise when I saw who's causing all this mayhem," he explains and looks at me. "despite common sense, for whatever reason, the Don decided to believe you. Now everyone's fighting back, and with the big guns this time," he says, jerking his head in the direction of the gunship which just came back into my sight.

Holy shit! My plan worked! Hah! Unbelievable! I hoped they'd at least prepare, but something like this? Unbelievable. "So what's the situation?" I ask.

"We're kicking ass and taking names. At least until they retreated to stop you guys. That's why everyone's heading here now. And... well, you look like you could use the help," he finishes with a chuckle.

Simply awesome. "I won't mind an extra gun," Shepard agrees.

"So where are you heading?" Jorrun asks as we start moving forward.

"Saren's at the Council chambers. If we don't get there fast enough, more of those things," she points at Sovereign, "will show up."

Jorrun silently gazes at the Reaper for several seconds. "Damn. That will be a bad thing, that's for sure," he turns to Shepard. "Alright, you can count on us. We'll get you there in no time."

"Thanks," the Commander says.

"This is Jorrun. I'm with Commander Shepard. She must get to the Council chambers as soon as possible," he says through the comm. "if she doesn't get there in time, we're screwed, so get your asses to the tower on the double!" there's a chorus of short replies. He turns to us. "Now let's kill some geth, shall we?" he asks.

Wrex barks out a short laugh. "Hah! I like your attitude, but don't be in my way when I'm tearing them apart."

Jorrun gives Wrex a good look and lets out a snort. "Only if there'll be anything left for you once I'm done with them," this seems to amuse Wrex more than annoy him, since he lets out another laugh.

Awww, why can't my friend get along nicely? Bah, at least it's not open hostilities.

* * *

><p>Oooh, I remember this part. Mostly, I remember how much I <em>hated<em> it when I played through it the first time. It's that large open area, with the geth missile turrets and shitload of geth. All in all, now that I think back to it, the place wasn't that difficult in theory, but in practice, it was simply _annoying_. Those turrets had a ridiculous firing range, and an even more ridiculous accuracy. I had to constantly move to avoid those damn rockets, and since the AI controlling my squadmates kinda sucked, they _always_ died. The fact that those missiles usually killed me with one hit didn't help me at all. How many times did I die because I failed to keep track of all the turrets? Too many, if you ask me.

And now... I'm here in my own person, about to face the same annoying hell I faced in the game. I can't deny that I feel a little nervous about this. So far I've encountered too many variables to expect things to stay as they were in the game. This area will be different, and not easy.

Of course, it _would_ be that way if I wasn't responsible for one variable in particular and now we have reinforcements to help us in this part. More accurately, a couple of dropships worth of reinforcements and five gunships.

Oh yeah. We're owning this place.

Not to mention I'm being thoroughly amused too, considering Ride of the Valkyries is flooding the comm. as the gunships approach their destination.

"_Would you cut it out?"_ some turian yells angrily. _"we need this channel clear!"_

"_No can do!" _the one responsible for the music, obviously a human, yelled back. "_This is tradition! _Tradition!_ Now I don't go whining about you sharpening your silly ceremonial knives or your nonexistent spirits, so don't you start whining about our ritualistic songs!"_

I hear Shepard snorting in amusement at that and I can't help but snicker myself. Since when the Valkyries is a ritualistic song? Well, it's been 150 years since my time... so anything could have happened! I don't mind either way.

And so, to the sound of this amazing song, we started our ground assault. There are around twenty of us with the reinforcements we just received, all of us in various states of combat readiness. Most of them, like us, wore armor and carried heavy duty weapons like assault rifles, shotguns or heavy pistols, though some of them apparently thought that the minimal equipment should be enough for them, like that guy who I just passed, who only wore a jacket and a clear mask that allowed him to breathe in the vacuum, carrying only a pistol with him.

Someone suddenly comes into my view, slowing down enough to run by my side. "Alexander," he greets me. Huh? I have no idea how he knows my name, because I sure as hell don't know him. Or at least, I think I don't know him. He has this accent that makes me think like I should know him.

He's wearing a black light armor, which is familiar to me for some reason as well, and a featureless black helmet, without even a visor. He's carrying a pistol at the moment, but he does have an assault rifle on his back and a... sword? A katana sword to be accurate. Huh, there's only one guy who I kinda know who carries a goddamn _sword_ to battle. "Honda?" I ask with a bit of hesitation and a little bit recognition.

"Correct," the man nods. "It seems that you're wishing to be involved in every major event on the Citadel," he remarks. Man, this helmet of his is weirding me out. With regular helmets, I can just look into the visor, because I know they're looking at me through that visor. With this helmet, I have no idea what to look at, with it being basically a blank metal plate.

"Heh, what can I say? I love interesting things," I reply with some amusement. I also apparently have a deathwish, because in this place interesting is usually means 'things shooting me'.

Honda chuckled good naturally at that. "Something we have in common then," he remarks.

I'm about to continue our impromptu conversation but a missile interrupts me as it flies overhead. Someone screams 'scatter!' and that's exactly what happens. Everyone suddenly scatters to the side as MA rounds start flying around. Ugh, I was so caught up in that conversation that I completely missed that we're already on the battlefield! Moron!

I immediately follow Shepard to cover as another rocket flies in our direction. The turrets shot a couple more rockets at our group until they changed aim at the more threatening targets: the gunships. For a moment, the air above us is filled with missiles, a breathtaking sight in itself in my opinion, and then soundless explosions brighten the area. The energy barriers around the turrets could take some rounds, but against missiles they were simply useless. In just a moment, one of the turrets was destroyed and the gunships opened fire with their chainguns.

"Move it!" Shepard barks as she leaves cover and charges ahead. With the turrets properly distracted, we just have the geth troopers to deal with. No need to yell! I climb over the elevated... thing, and run after Shepard. No points in going through all those passageways between those platforms since it'll just slow us down. We're taking the straight path to our destination.

I reach one of the gaps, where a lone geth is waiting for me. I leap over him, opening fire as soon as I see him. The geth let's out a couple of shots, but I'm faster. My shields drop to 80% but my rounds tear him apart. With my jump I clear the path and I'm preparing to land without losing speed but... I simply continue floating forward. Well...

Shit.

It's weird that I'm not actually that worried about all the possible bad things this might do to my health, like floating off the battlefield and being an easy target for the geth. Nah, I'm more worried about how embarrassing this is, and how stupid I look like this. I might as well try to be useful. I shoot out a couple of bursts at a geth that raised his head too high and scored a headshot with the second burst. Sadly, the recoil made me lose my rather comfortable position and made my upper body lean back. Great. Now I'm floating horizontally. I wave my arms around in hopes that it might help me align myself back to my former position, and it might've worked had there been gravity at this place, but since there wasn't, the only thing I accomplish is basically look like an idiot. Now I wish my armor had jetpacks like Jorrun. Hm, I'm floating like this for almost half a minute and no one bothers to shoot me yet...

By the nine goddamned hells...

Someone takes pity on me and yanks me down by my foot. Whoever it is, they don't really pull me to the ground, but they give me enough momentum to float to the floor. My feet clamp to the floor and I start moving again, this time avoiding any jumps. I say a quick thanks through the comm. hoping my rescuer would hear it, and move at double speed to catch up with Shepard. My eyes land on one of our guys who was floating in place, unmoving with a few large red round drops of blood floating around him. That's just a bizzare things to see. I tear my eyes away from the sight and turn my attention back to the fight.

Jorrun is spotted immediately. I see him blast off the ground to fly over a group of huddle geth. With his thrusters he pushes himself left and right to make himself a difficult target but I'm more captivated by his grenade launcher. The launcher spits out two projectiles and silently, but brightly the geth are engulfed by a large explosion that tore them apart. Hm, Joe's not actually flying or anything, he just uses his thrusters to push himself and let momentum do the rest. Now, I'm interested in knowing how this thing works in gravity!

A gunship passes over us, raining death down on the geth in the form of mass accelerator rounds. I spot Wrex crushing into a geth destroyer, sending it flying away. Next to him, Honda literally slices a geth into three pieces with a flurry of movements before he dashes to his next target. I can't seem to find Shepard or anyone else anywhere. Well, I might as well follow Wrex since he's the closest to me.

The turrets are gone, so the only thing standing in our way are the geth troopers trying to stop us. Keyword, trying. With the gunships now flying above us, launching missiles and chaingun barrages, the geth stand no chance against us. When I reach Wrex I see him shooting another destroyer and I quickly move to help him but one of said gunship pilots decides to do the same thing. A barrage of heavy rounds slam into the destroyer, making it stumble and then fall down, where the rounds proceeded to tear it apart. Wrex stops shooting and simply stares at the remains of the geth for a long moment – if he wasnt wearing a helmet, I can almost guess that his expression would look similar to one a child would have if his candy was stolen right from his hands – before he turns to look at the gunship. "Hey! That was mine!" he growls out angrily, even waving an angry fist at it.

"_Don't care!"_ a human voice replies, presumably the pilot.

Wrex grumbles angrily and moves on and I follow him, chuckling to myself. We move down a path into a small passageway and move past a couple of downed geth but what catches my attention is the large gathering of people on the far side. Most importantly, Shepard and the others are there.

"Took you long enough," Shepard remarks with annoyance clear in her voice.

I decide to remain silent. Not the time to recount my Moment of Maximum Embarrassment of the Day. Anyway, from where we're standing, I guess that we're at the end of the road. There's a small hatch on the floor and I know exactly where it'll take us.

Something lands in front of me, scaring the shit out of me for a second before I see that it's just Jorrun. "Alright, we cleared this place. There a couple of geth dropships heading to this location, but our gunships should take care of that," he says casually. He gives us a long look, his gaze staying on me the longest before he turns back to Shepard. "You go on. We'll handle everything here."

"Thanks again," Shepard says earnestly. "And I wouldnt stay here if I were you. Once we manage to open up the Citadel, the whole fleet will be here and your men will get caught in the crossfire," she warns.

Jorrun let's out a short snort. "Heh, they're not my men, but sure. I'll relay that message. Good luck in there," he says and gives me another look. "Don't do something stupid and get yourself killed," he says and starts walking away, but not before adding something in his departure. "put a round into his head for me, will ya?"

"Got it," I reply.

"I was saying that to Shepard..." Jorrun says with a laugh and jumps away, leaving me to grumble in annoyance. Damn that Joe, always making me feel incompetent, even when it's not true.

I turn to look at the people I've spent the past... how long has it been? Almost two months? A little bit longer? I wasn't really counting the time but it sure feels like it's been much longer. All this time, we've been fighting together, side by side and that just... it simply created a special bond between us. Nothing mushy, simply a form of trust, knowing that we will always watch eachother's backs in a firefight. It's the kind of trust that's built during battle. Just like with Jorrun and the crew, this makes them more than just friends.

We all exchange long looks, as if the same thoughts go through their minds as well, until Shepard looks at Wrex. "Would you do the honors?" she asks, gesturing at the hatch.

"Gladly," the krogan says with a nod and reaches down to pull it open.

This is it. I can't believe it, but this is it. At some points I didn't think it'll happen, but we're finally here. This is the end. Beyond this hatch, is the End, with the capital E.

This is the final showdown.

* * *

><p><strong>Awwwww yeah. As you can already guess, the next chapter is the final showdown against Saren! Now, I'm not going to say anything so instead I'll be honest. I have no idea when the next chapter will be out. Due to MANY changes at work, mostly me getting a new boss, there's a lot of things that keep me busy, much to my dismay. Either way I should manage to get some writing done in the days off, or after work when I get the good morning shifts. As I said before, the chapter after the next one will be the last one. Damn. Still can't believe this...<br>**

**Anyway, thank you everyone for reading this story, and special thanks go to everyone who reviewed! Your support does wonders to me! Thank you again! Now, feel free to tell me what you think, or suggestions and so on! I love your input so feel free to speak freely! Don't stalk from the shadows. Come to the light! Leave a review! Or a PM. Whatever you wish. Thanks again, and until next time, Delvaro out!**


	49. Chapter 49

**I'm back! Yeah, sorry for the long delay. I'm a bad person, I know. Had so many things to do, and mostly it was my job sucking the life out of me by... well, sucking. Shitty job, ugh. Anyway, I finally completed this thing! Since you waited so long for this chapter, I'll save all I have to say for later! Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p>We drop down into the elevator through the hatch and the door automatically opens before us, revealing the Council chambers. Or what's left of them. As they are now, I don't see any meetings being held here anytime soon.<p>

The trees are on fire, all the lights are off, leaving the flames as the only source of light, casting an orange glow over the entire large chamber. On the farthest side, a bright light is coming through the large window, being the only source of light not depending on a power source.

We file out into the room, weapons ready for action. I remember clearly that there were geth here but... it's too silent. They might be hiding, or something. Carefully, but as fast as possible, we move further into the room and rise up the first set of stairs. Still, no geth. They should be here but, well, they're not. Weird. Maybe we killed them all in our grand assault? They might've went to reinforce the defenses... either way, why am I complaining? Less problems for us!

Seeing that nothing was trying to stop us, we increase our speed. We reach the second set of stairs without incident, and then reach the final one, and still, there's no sign of anyone. No sign of Saren too. We run up the final set of stairs and I just manage to catch a glimpse of something dropping down. Oh! There's Saren! And if I remember correctly...

Before I can finish that line of thought, a humming noise interrupts me and Saren rises up on his weird hover-board thing and tosses something at us. Oh yeah! A grenade! I jump to the side and out of the way without wasting time. I land out in the open, more feeling than seeing the explosion, and I quickly scramble behind some cover, one of the podium's rails.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard," Saren remarks conversationally.

"I'm sorry, the elevators leave much to be desired," Shepard replies in kind. "now let's end this!"

"You've lost, you know that, don't you?" Saren continues, not impressed at all at her witty shot at the elevator speed. "In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control over the Citadel's systems. The relay will open. The Reapers will return."

"I've still got a few trick up my sleeve," Shepard shoots back from her not-that-hidden location. I have to wonder why Saren is not tossing another grenade at her. It's not like that rail will protect her that much.

"You survived our encounter on Virmire. But I've changed since then. Improved. Sovereign has... upgraded me."

"You let Sovereign implant you?!" Shepard asks incredulously and voices the same thing that crosses my mind at the moment. "Are you out of your fucking mind?!"

"I suppose I should thank you, Shepard. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you said. About Sovereign manipulating me. About indoctrination... doubts began to eat away at me. Sovereign sensed my hesitation and I was implanted to strengthen my resolve," he clenches a fist at that last word, and the slight hesitation that was in his voice as he explained the implants vanished. "Now, my doubts are gone -"

"And that's exactly what he did, moron!" I yell out before I could stop and immediately wince soon after, since Saren turned his attention to me. Oh, damn! I should've kept my mouth shut. I was hoping Shepard would make him shoot himself or something, but his stupidity is just... impossible to handle. "Don't you see? He's already controlling you through your implants!"

"The relationship is symbiotic!" Saren counters. "Organic and machine intertwined, a union and flesh and steel. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither!" he turns back to Shepard. "I am the vision of the future, Shepard. The evolution of all organic life. This is our destiny. Join Sovereign and experience true rebirth!"

Yeah, as if she needs Sovereign to experience a rebirth... damn, that's something I don't want to think about at the moment. "The future? You're just giving up and letting him kill us all! There's no future for_ any of us_ if the Reapers get here! Where's your goddamn turian pride?!"

Saren actually _flinches_ at that. Yeah, for a turian, that's pretty much an unfair blow, but I don't care. I've learned a lot about turians in all the time I hanged out with Joe. Turians are essentially warriors, and they're very proud of it, and they take the whole thing seriously. Turians simply do not surrender. That's a fact. Against hostilities, even the civilians will pick up their weapon to fight, women, children and old. They simply _never_ surrender willingly, and that is a universal _fact_. A turian that surrenders is a coward, and doesn't deserve to be considered a person, because he's an insult to the whole race.

Shepard simply takes advantage of his moment of weakness. "Sovereign hasn't won yet! I can stop it from taking control of the station! Step aside and the invasion will never happen!"

"We can't stop it!" Saren snaps. "Not forever! You saw the visions! You saw what happened to the Protheans! The Reapers are too powerful!"

"Some part of you must still realize this is wrong! You can fight this!" she yells heatedly.

Saren looks down in thought, conflicting ideas basically warring in his head. "Maybe you're right... maybe, there's a chance –Ugh!" in an instant he freezes, his body tenses and a pain-filled growl escapes him as he grabs hold of his head. He thrashes around for a moment before he stops and looks at Shepard. "The implants..." he growls out in pain. "Sovereign is too strong... I'm sorry, it's too late for me."

Shepard stands up at that and faces Saren, out in the open. "It's not over yet! You can still redeem yourself!"

Saren looks at her for a long moment, his platform slowly rising higher and away from her, until he chuckles. A humorless chuckle. Full of bitterness and defeat. I know what's coming... and I'm honestly unable to feel joy at that. "Goodbye Shepard," Saren says quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "Thank you."

And with one swift movement, he raises his pistol to his jaw and pulls the trigger.

Shepard flinches at the sudden end of Saren and silently watches his body topple off his flying platform and drops through the glass into the garden below the podium. She stands like this, frozen in place for a couple of seconds before she shakes it off and moves over to the Citadel controls. We silently follow after her. I honestly have nothing to say at what happened. She activates her omni-tool and uploads Vigil's program. "It worked! I've got control over the station," she announces, though her voice is slightly subdued.

"Quick, open the station's arms. Maybe the fleet can take Sovereign down," Tali says urgently.

Shepard nods and goes back to her omni-tool. At first, the only thing that's heard is static but she fiddles with for a few seconds until until a voice breaks through the static. "_... the Destiny Ascension. Main drives offline. Kinetic barriers down 40%. The Council is on board. I repeat, the Council is on board!"_

Shepard then switches channels and a very familiar voice is heard. _"Normandy to the Citadel! Normandy to the Citadel! Please tell me it's you, Commander!"_

"I'm here Joker!"

"_We caught that distress call, Commander. I'm sitting here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension! Just unlock the relays around the Citadel and we'll send the cavalry in."_

"Are you sure about this Shepard? The Council haven't been very helpful to you" Wrex rumbles.

"Not to mention the human casualties if you send them in now..." Tali adds.

"This is bigger than humanity! Sovereign is a threat to every organic being in the galaxy!" Liara interrupts, looking scandalized at the thought of sacrificing the Council.

"Exactly. That's why you can't just waste fresh reinforcement," Wrex counters.

"But... it's the Council! We can't just let them die!" Garrus points out.

Shepard looks conflicted at all this as she looks at everyone and weighs their suggestions. And then, she looks at me, the only one who hasn't said a thing. Everyone else looks at me too, as if I'm the deciding voice in this argument. Aw, shit. I... I don't want responsibility for this! I have no idea what to say. This isnt the game, where you can shrug it off and wonder what'll change in the sequel. "Just... do what you think is right," I finally say.

"_What's the order Commander? Do we save the Ascension, or do we hold back?"_

Shepard's silent for a long moment. Then she visibly steels herself and looks out of the window. "Opening the relays now, Joker. We need to save the Ascension. No matter the cost."

Wrex grumbles something in reply, probably not pleased about he decision. And I hear Tali mutter something along the lines of "I hope you know what you're doing..."

With the decision made, Shepard steps over to the edge and glances at Saren's body. "Make sure he's dead," she finally says, giving me a glance.

Oh, that's up to me, I guess. Wrex wordlessly volunteers and follows me as I step off the podium and jump down through the now shattered glass. I land with a grunt and slowly approach Saren's body.

I'm... not going to lie and say that I don't hate Saren. Because I do. For many things. For beating me senseless. For beating everyone senseless. For everyone he killed. For Kaidan. Mostly for Ashley. But I just can't... I can't be _angry_ at him. It's weird like that. Usually hatred is accompanied by anger, but not in this case. I hate him, but I can't bring myself to be angry at the moment. If anything... I feel sorry for him. Sorry, that for all the things he tried to accomplish, he's done nothing good. Sorry that once he realized what he's done, and that he can stop it... it was too late.

And now, he's lying in the ground in front of me, in a puddle of his own blood, I can also feel a small bit of pity. Saren Arterius was one of the greatest Spectres of the galaxy. Somehow... I believe that he deserved better than what happened to him. Without much enthusiasm, I pull out my pistol and aim it at Saren's head, and pull the trigger once. For some reason, it feels right to do this. Wrex calmly tells Shepard that he's dead.

"This was for Ashley..." I mutter under my breath.

Saren Arterius is dead.

The thing we'll be facing in a minute is just a shell, with nothing of the once-great Spectre left in it.

Speaking of the devil, that red spark that shot across Saren's body really doesn't look good. Another spark shot out. Then another, quickly followed by a dozen more. Awwww, shit! The station starts to shake violently. Then... Saren's body starts screaming as whatever skin remained on him started burning. Oh, hell no! I open fire, hoping that maybe that'll solve the problem. Sadly, it does nothing and Saren – no, Sovereign – unleashes a bright red shockwave that knocks me back. A ruckus from behind me, quickly followed by strong vibrations tell me that the podium where everyone was standing has just collapsed.

Saren's body stands up, thrashing violently as it slowly... changed. Claws grew sharper and longer. Skin and organic matter disintegrated. Within seconds the thing that was once Saren finished his transformation turns to us, red electrical sparks dancing around his body, and a ball of bright red energy inside of his ribcage. Without any need for an order, everyone raises their weapons.

And then he jumps.

In the blink of an eye, he clears the distance to us and lands in front of Liara, who barely manages to raise her rifle by that moment. With one movement, he backhands her across the chest and sends her flying into the wall.

This all happened so fast that no one even registered the fact that we haven't even shot a single time at him. We just stand in place, and look at him in awe and horror. I glance at collapsed form of Liara, who hasn't moved after she hit the wall. I'm not sure who was the first who shook off the shock, but a moment later, rounds started flying all over the place. But Saren, or Sovereign, Or SoveSaren or whatever, already jumped away like a demented cybernetic grasshopper and his voice, a distorted, broken version of it, was heard throughout the room.

"**I am Sovereign! And this station is MINE."**

Holy crap! I switch my pistol in favor of my rifle and start shooting. I'm pretty sure I'm not hitting anything because that shit's fucking impossible! One moment he's there in front of me, then he's on the ceiling and then he's strafing us while crawling in a very disturbing manner.

After several moments of missing, I finally manage to land a few hits on him when he pauses in place to shoot a bright orb or red energy at Wrex. Not that it did anything to him. His shields barely even shimmered at the impact of the rounds. It got his attention though. He turns his glare at me and a second later, my rifle literally explodes in my hand with a bright flash of sparks!

I bit down the scream of pain as the charred remains of my weapon fall down to the floor. When it exploded, apparently some parts of it flew right into my hands, because they _sting!_ And judging by how they look from the glance I took, they're bleeding too.

What the fuck was that!? Since when was he able to blow up weapons?! This is worse than the cooldown bug!

Fuck it, I'm taking my shotgun. I jump back into the fray. I don't see Garrus, which worries me greatly, but I don't have time for this. I just keep shooting. That's the only thing I can do. My hands sting, but that's almost like a background feeling for me. If anything, I'm dizzy from turning around in place trying to pinpoint the bastard, or running away when he lands too close to me.

It keeps going like this until he lands in front of Shepard, his arm rearing back for a blow, that his shields finally took enough. He has his back turned to me, so I have the advantage. The shotgun blast makes him move a step and interrupts his attack, allowing Shepard to get some distance from him. I pull the trigger again and this time the shower of sparks that shoot out from his back when the rounds connect with him again. And again, and then some more!

It doesn't do much damage to him, but it certainly pisses him off, judging by the ominous way he slowly turns to look at me. Oh, fuck. Ohh... shit. He jumps over at me. Oh, fuuuck! I shoot him again, this time in the face, but he just shrugs it off! A glowing red orb of energy gathers where his mouth should be and it quickly shoots it at me. I'm too close to him. I can't dodge. So I do the only thing I can do. I hold my arms in front of me, shotgun first and let them take most of the damage instead of anything important.

The next thing I know is a lot,_ a lot_ of pain. And I'm unable to see anything too, because once the bright ball hits me, it erupts into blinding light. It's almost as if someone's clawing off the skin on my arms, and then shoves knives into every spot there is. As if my arms are on fire. And I'm pretty sure they are. Once the light fades, I can see that my arms _are on fire!_

And through my burning arms, I can still see Saren, his arm like a dark blur, shooting out to him me. The next thing's on fire is my face. I can't even scream at this point. From the way my arms fly out, I'm pretty sure I'm flying and spinning. I can hear someone yelling my name and then I hit something and then... everything just fades.

* * *

><p>The first thing I hear is gunshots. So... I'm pretty sure the battle is still going on. I'm feeling... tired. Maybe I should just go to sleep... an explosion shakes off that idea, though I must note that the sound is... dimmed. As if I'm underwater. Ugh, can't sleep while this is happening. Eeehhh, I don't feel so good. I open my eyes and immediately regret it. My vision is hazy, and something is definitely wrong with it. I roll over and by sheer miracles manage to get myself to a sitting position. My dizziness gets worse. I want to puke my guts out. My whole head feels... numb, as if it's dead weight. My visor is cracked for some reason. Ugh, I can't see anything like this. I reach for my head and pull off my helmet.<p>

And what a bad idea it is. Pain immediately flares in my head once I pull off the helmet and bile rises up my throat and pours out of my mouth. I finally catch my breath after a few hacking coughs and I spit out the taste out of my mouth, and then I realize just how fucked up my physical state is. First of all, there's blood in the vomit. Then, while my vision is still blurry and hazy, I can't really fully see. More accurately, the right side of my vision is missing. Slowly, with a shaking hand, I touch that side of my face and immediately hiss in pain and flinch at the wave of nausea it produces. I look back at the hand to see it completely coated in blood.

Speaking of my hands... how the hell are they still working? Almost up to the shoulders they look to be... almost charred. The armor is gone, melted, and I can easily see the red of meat and blood between the black that used to be the skin. How the hell I'm not dying from pain anyway? The most I feel is some kind of pressure in my head, and I honestly can't really feel my arms that well.

Back to the matter of my damaged face, I look at the helmet I dropped to the floor and turn it around, so I could see the front of it. First thing I can think of: Ouch. There are a couple of wide gashes on it, one of them going through where the right eye is supposed to be. Ah. That explains why I can't see.

…

Fuck.

I look at the battle – or try to – and see the blurry shape that I assume is Shepard (there's some red on the head, and Shepard has red hair) shooting the glowing thingy that is Saren. The big shape is Wrex, no mistake about it, and... where is everyone else? There were other too... Garrus and Tali... thinking makes my head hurt. I reach out to my hip and manage to feel my pistol there.

I'm not out of the fight just yet.

I grab it, and stand up. Or try to. I end up falling to the floor, my head erupting with another crippling wave of pain. Once it fades I try to stand up again, this time more slowly, I finally manage to stand on my feet.

Saren slaps away Wrex, who tries to charge him, and focuses on Shepard, who resorts to her shotgun. Probably blew up her rifle or something, or whatever. She blasts him one step away from her, but that doesn't stop him. His back is turned to me again. "Hey Saren!" I yell out and pull the trigger. Well, I try to yell it, but the thing that comes out of my mouth sounds more like "Hesaren!"

The first shot doesn't even come close to hitting him. I don't think I'm even aiming at him. I don't think I'm capable of aiming at the moment, so I just shoot at his general direction. Each step I take towards him makes me want to drop down and sleep, or vomit. Or both at the same time. With each step, my aim only gets worse and with each shot I find it more difficult to even hold the pistol up. By some stupid luck, or a miracle, one of the wide shots lands right on the side of his head. He freezes and looks at me. Oh yeah, I'm still alive. "Hey! Christmas tree!" I yell again, not caring how slurred my speech is.

Saren turns to face me, but then something blue jumps on it, and tackles it away from me. I assume it's Garrus, because he's the only one wearing blue. Or maybe it's Liara? Probably Garrus. I can't see Liara doing a flying tackle. Saren pushes Garrus away but then a female roar is heard, and both mine and Saren's attention is turned over to Shepard, who charges at the distracted Saren with biotics wildly flaring around her first. Saren spins around to stop Shepard but he's too late. She already cleared the distance and slams the biotic punch in a brutal uppercut into his remaining jaw. His head snaps back, hard enough that the back oh his head slammed against his back, and used her free hand, which held the shotgun, to shove the weapon right into his rib cage, where the glowing thing was. Saren's head snapped back to look at her with a mechanical roar, but Shepard simply pulls the trigger.

There's a small explosion that blows Shepard back, but the glowing thing is gone now, and Saren clumsily steps back a couple of times, wildly flinging his arms this way and that way until he stumbles and drops to the floor, where he slowly disintegrates into ashes.

I blink blearily at the bright lights and suddenly find it very hard to stand. I let the pistol drop to the floor and turn to look at everyone else. Or try to. When it turn my head I lose my balance and start falling down. Thankfully, I only start falling. Someone catches me and keeps my upright and the red color I see tells me it's Shepard. Or maybe it's just my blood. It _is_ all over the place after all. She places herself under my shoulder to keep me standing and I allow myself to slightly lean on her, because standing makes things hurt. I look at her, and she looks back at me. Yeah, this isn't good, judging by the wide-eyed and horror-filled look she's giving me. She finally tears her eyes away from me and looks at the others. "Pick them up! See if they're okay!" she barks out, her loud voice making my ears ring.

Then, a mighty explosion rocks the station and a shadow blocks all the light. Shepard turns to look at the window and her eyes widen to impossible proportions. I do the same and I see something black, which can only be the pieces of Sovereign, flying over to our location.

Immediately, Shepard starts pulling me along with her as fast as she can. "Go!" She yells and I spot Wrex helping a dazed-looking Tali. I assume Garrus is doing the same with Liara. Shepard's pulling me faster and faster, but it's not working. I can't run. I can't even stand. I'm slowing her down. So I do the only thing I can do at the moment. I grab her hand and remove it and then use all the strength I have to push her forward. This sends her hurtling forward and without anything to brace me I fall down to the floor. Maybe now I'll get some sleep...

"Alex!" I hear her panicked scream. I don't really care at the moment. I'm too tired...

The deafening sound of something big crashing into the place is the last thing I hear.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeeeeeep! You guessed it! Next chapter is the LAST ONE! By the gods, I can't believe it. I actually got close to finishing this in such a short time. I honestly had no idea at first how long it'll take me, but damn. 1 year is short in my books. Anyway, next chapter is the last one! I'll try finishing it sooner than possible, but with these holidays in Russia, it's difficult because I'm constantly WORKING during holidays. Fucking job... Anyway, I'll complete it once I complete it. Be patient, at least a little. Won't take me over a month, that's for sure. Maximum of two weeks.<br>**

**Note: Changed that annoying typo. Just EVERYONE had to comment on it. No. Saren dying did NOT change his gender.**

**Oh! And because I'm pretty sure that 60% of the reader DON'T read the AN's.. **

**I TURN ON ABSOLUTE CAPS MODE SO YOU WILL SEE IT! READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS! READ THE THING BELOW THIS ONE!  
><strong>

**YES. FOR THE 137TH TIME, I WILL BE MAKING A SEQUEL! AS I SAID IN THE LAST CHAPTER'S AN'S, AND THE AN'S IN THE CHAPTER BEFORE THE ALST ONE, YES, I WILL BE WRITING A SEQUEL. STOP ASKING ME THIS QUESTION. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE READ MY AN'S ANYWAY? THIS IS ABSURD. I HOPE YOU CAN READ THIS. I REPEAT, _THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!_**

**Ah, now that I got this out of my system, I'll go play some LoL, lose because of a retarded team, drink some Pepsi and enjoy some cookies. Thanks for reading this story! I'm very glad you enjoy it! Your reviews and words always inspire me to write this as fast as I can! So, thank you again! Next chapter is the last one! Wooohoo! until next time, Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	50. Chapter 50

**Hello again! First of all, sorry for the long delay, but I've been... indsposed. I've had an important exam I've had to prepare for (Yeah, another one of those) but thankfully, it's behind me now!**

**So... I've finally did it. I've done it. I have finished writing this chapter just a couple of minutes ago, double checked everything, and I think it's ready to go. Hard to believe that it's over, really. Now, I'll leave all this nostalgic stuff for the end, so for now, enjoy the last chapter of this story!**

**Oh, and Shepard's first name is finally revealed. If you have a problem with it... well, it's not MY problem! Deal with!**

* * *

><p>The first thing I register is pain. Well, not exactly painful pain. More like a dull pain, the kind you'll feel if you lie in bed for a very long time and your muscles just refuse to cooperate with you. More like unpleasant numbness, now that I think of it.<p>

The second thing I register is pain. The real thing this time. My head feels as if it was split apart, and then a bunch of krogan saw fit to stomp on the pieces and put everything back together using spit and tissue paper. My ears are ringing in a very unpleasant manner and when I try to move my arms the only thing I manage to do is move my fingers a bit, and even then just doing that stings badly.

I hear some muffled voices around me but I can't really make sense of what they're saying. I manage to catch something that sounds like 'waking' but that's it. Huh, I guess they noticed that I'm awake. Honestly, I'm feeling to tired to be awake... maybe I'll continue my nap? And where the hell did they get a bed? I'm definitely in a bed, and I don't remember them having one in the Council chambers.

Council chambers.

The memories pretty much slam back into my brain. Council chambers. Saren. Sovereign. Big battle. We... won? I open my eyes.

And immediately regret doing it because there's something very bright right over my head. A groan escapes me and I shut my eyes closed. This time, I open my eyes a lot more slowly, letting my eyes gradually get used to the light.

Well, my _eye._

I still can't see anything to my right. Only the left side is available. I guess that wasn't my imagination back then. My right eye is really missing. Or... dunno. From what I'm feeling, there's something covering the right side of my face, maybe bandages or something. Not sure.

Back to what's important though. Where the hell am I? From the way everything looks... I'm betting that I'm in a hospital, because only hospitals have this pristine look about them. And the smell. That's definitely hospital smell. The steady beeps that I hear remind me of those heart monitors I heard in movies, so it's probably the same thing. There are two people in the room with me, the first one I don't recognize and the second... only one person I know has red hair.

I narrow my eye slightly to get see better. Yep, definitely Shepard. She's giving me a relieved smile. "Welcome back to the land of the living," she greets me quietly.

"Shep-" I try to say her name but the end of it ends with a small coughing fit. My throat is unexpectedly dry. Shepard wordlessly reaches out to somewhere beyond my field of view and a second later her hand comes back holding a cup of water. With a straw. Before I can protest she places the straw into my mouth and gives me a look that tells me I shouldn't argue. I'm honestly too thirsty to argue, dignity be damned. I gulp down the cool water and to my displeasure the water runs out far too quickly. After she takes the cup away I clear my throat, ignoring the overly amused smile she's sporting. "Shepard," I greet her, though my throat is still a bit sore.

"Glad to see you're fine," she says. I blink a couple of times, glad to see that my vision is gradually getting back to normal. I can finally see the small details. Shepard has a few cuts on her face, but nothing too serious and they're already halfway healed. She's wearing her regular uniform and her left arm is, curiously, in a sling. Apparently she notices where I'm looking and clarifies. "Broke in two places," she explains with a shrug.

"How long?" I ask. I know that it was more than a day. More than a couple of days as well. To heal a broken arm it usually takes from anywhere between five days to two weeks, depending on how broken it is.

"Almost two weeks," she says, making my eye go wide. "Eleven days and ten hours, if you want to be exact."

So long... I've been out for this long. Just... wow. I sleep for mostly six hours a day... but to be out of it for eleven days... it's surreal. "So... what happened? We won and... what else?"

"Nothing much. We beat Sovereign, and humanity now has a seat on the Council. We also happen to be the biggest damn heroes on this side of the galaxy. Can't go outside without some paparazzi ambushing us."

"Oh," is what I say after a moment. I'm a bit surprised, honestly. I'd expected Shepard to get all the credit and fame, like in the game. Then again, maybe Shepard is just being humble about all this. "So... what happened to everyone?" I ask. Last I saw, Liara was unconscious and everyone else was a bit worse for wear.

"Everyone is bruised at most, other than you and Wrex... and Wrex is a krogan, so..." she pauses there do some vague gesture in my direction. So I'm the most injured one. Great. Wrex won't shut up about it now. She looks down at her injured arm. "I got this after the battle, when Sovereign's pieces crashed into the tower, so yes. You're the worst case out of our group."

"So what exactly _did_ happen to me?" I ask, looking at my body. There's a pair of IV drips connected to my arms. I raise my arms slightly to bring them closer to my face, wincing slightly when the movement causes a spark of pain. They're completely bandaged, so I have no idea what's up with them now. I shudder when I remember how they looked like during the battle. My legs... they just feel uncomfortably numb. I try to move one of my legs but the most I manage to do is to make it jerk slightly to the side. For some reason, I barely have any control over them.

Someone clearing their throat interrupts my inspection and I look at the second occupant of the room, who I've been ignoring so far. "I think I should be the one to answer that," the man says. I look at him for a long moment until I realize that I actually know this guy: Doctor Morrison.

"Uh, hey Doc," I greet him awkwardly, trying to make a fist without much success... or at least, without any pain involved.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that when you said you'd get a safe and boring job, saving the Citadel and the Council was not what I had in mind."

"Heh, well... my last job was too boring," I say after an embarrassed chuckle.

"In that case, I'll try to keep you entertained to make sure you don't run off and do something crazy... not that you actually _can_ do anything," he added as an afterthought, which made me frown. He clears his throat again and opts a professional tone. "You are crippled!"

My jaw drops.

"Hey!" this comes from Shepard, who is sending him a heated glare.

"Hey, calm down! I'm joking!" he raises his arms in defense, looking at Shepard.

"You don't joke about things like this!"

"Alright, it was not very tasteful," Morrison admits and looks back at me. "you _were_ crippled. We fixed you up. Mostly."

I have to note that my jaw is still hanging. "Mostly?"

"Yes. Mostly. First of all, you are without a doubt, the luckiest person in this galaxy. I'm not kidding. When they brought you in, I can honestly tell you that eight out of ten doctors would've said that you won't make it. Not a lot of people survive what you've been though. To begin with, when that dreadnaught crashed into the tower, one of the debris fell on you and damaged your spine. You pretty much snapped like a twig. Then, your left leg was essentially crushed from the impact Not only that, but it took the rescue teams quite a while to dig you out of there, and all that time you were bleeding out. I have no idea how you did this, but you survived. Barely. We lost you three times while you were in the ICU, but we pulled you through."

During his whole explanation, most of what he said turned into just a buzz of sound as he talked. My mind was stuck on several words. Snapped like a twig. Died three times. "Wait wait. You said... you said I _was_ crippled," I quickly interrupt him, suddenly feeling very cold.

"Yes, I've already said that. Now, other than your spinal and head injury which included a heavy concussion, you also suffered second to third degree burns on your chest and arms, your ribcage was nearly shattered to pieces and parts of your right arm were utterly charred. If you weren't wearing that armor, whatever hit you would've probably killed you right there, and even then you're lucky that we managed to avoid amputation. Barely at that. We managed to save most of your right arm, thankfully. Left arm was easy to take care of."

That word again. Most. By the nine hells, can they actually do anything wholly? Why am I _mostly_ fixed?!

"That said, we did what we could and I'm pleased to say that you should theoretically make a full recovery. Your right arm has suffered some nerve damage due to the burns but I believe we managed to repair most of it, but I'll have you go through proper therapy and then rehabilitation just in case, and put your spine back together, followed by extensive burn treatment and new skin attachments. As for your eye, once again, you're the luckiest bastard. That helmet definitely saved your life. A couple millimeters further, whatever hit you would've penetrated your skull. So losing an eye was definitely the best outcome, considering the alternative. Thankfully, your optic nerve was undamaged, and we only had to replace the eyeball itself, so other than a nasty scar – which we can remove later – you will regain vision in your right eye. After the surgeries we're kept you suspended in a coma, to let everything heal and right now we're mostly pumping you with painkillers. So... after all that, I guess I should congratulate you. You're the one million credits man. Or the one million six hundred fifty thousand credits man."

I'm... I'm just speechless. Back in my time, I'd be dead. That's for sure. But I'm alive. Not only that... I'm going to make a full recovery. Theoretically, at least. But the chance is there! But damn, that's a lot of money. "Uh... that's a lot," I finally say.

"You should thank your friend here for that," Morrison replies, giving Shepard an amused look. "while we were realigning her arm back to place she contacted the Council and... _persuaded_," the way he stretches the words makes me think that she did something more that simply persuade them. "them to fully pay for your treatment. The spine surgery alone costs almost half of the full expenses and we bumped you up to the top of the waiting list too, which means you didn't have to wait months to have your spine repaired. I have to say that without the Council's support I don't think that we could've done everything we did," he then chuckles. "I wasn't there when it happened, but I was told she was very... convincing."

I look at Shepard, who is looking away from me, a little sheepishly. For some reason, I have a feeling that Shepard wasn't really nice to the council. Why do I get the feeling there were a lot of expletives involved?

"Now that we got that out of the way, let me do some tests," he says, pulling out a datapad and proceeds to poke me in the legs. "Can you feel it?" he asks. I can feel the touch, though barely. Then I feel a sudden spike of pain, which makes me jerk my leg. I look at the doctor to see him wielding a rather large needle, which he used to stab me in the foot with.

"Yeah, I can feel it. Though it's really numbed," I say. Already knowing what he was going to ask next I try to move my legs again. With some effort I manage to move them a bit, but it's not anything special.

"Good, good," he mutters to himself, writing something into his datapad before turning to me. "_Very_ good. This means the surgery was very successful. The nerve damage was repaired and thankfully, no complications so far. As far as spine injuries go, yours was a very... clean one. Anyway, we'll take care of that once you're healthy enough to start your rehabilitation, so don't worry about not being able to move your legs."

The next few moments pass silently. Morrison quietly types into his datapad while Shepard is busy fiddling with her own half-filled glass of water. I'm just staring at Shepard. I have to wonder what she's doing here in the first place. I mean, I bet she has a lot of better things to do other than sit here and wait for me to wake up. Not that I'm complaining of course! I'm willing to bet that there are a lot of people who would want to wake up from a coma and see that face looking at you. Which is quite awesome, I must admit.

"Well!" Morrison interrupts my line of thoughts. "For now it's enough. I'll be back later today so I will leave you with your friend now. Don't do anything I won't," he added with a wink to my direction and a quick meaningful glance at Shepard, before he stepped out of the room. Huh, what did he mean by that?

Now that we're alone Shepard turns to me. "I take it you know this guy?" she asks with some amusement.

"Heh, yeah. Kinda. He treated me when I first arrived to the Citadel, and then treated an injury I got in my... line of work," I explain. Yeah, I should leave that story hidden in the past. My window-smack was embarrassing enough back then, no need to bring it back. "So... what have I missed?"

She smiles eagerly and proceeds to tell me the latest news.

* * *

><p>"Huh, now you're just copying me," Wrex rumbles with some amusement as he examines the right side of my face. A couple of days earlier the doctor finally decided that he could remove the bandages from my head, leaving me only with this medical eye-patch thingy. With the bandages gone, my scars were now easily visible. It's pretty simple-looking. One gash ran down from my forehead, over my eye and ended just a bit below my cheekbone. Another, smaller one, ran down from the right side of the lower lip and ran down to my chin, splitting the stubble I've been growing during my stay. All in all... I must say that they look pretty badass! Though the split lip was a bit annoying, since talking usually made it hurt.<p>

"Copying? I'm sorry, but my scars look a lot more impressive than yours. Yours look like some cat scratched you," I shoot back with a little grin. Admittedly, a very big cat, considering the size of the claws. But still, they look like cat scratches.

Wrex grunts in a friendly manner – I never thought I'd see the day where I could recognize the differences between grunts, but here I am, doing just that – and rolls his eyes. "And you were bitchslapped by a turian. That makes you laughing stock on Tuchanka."

"Oh, no. Don't go there. That freak was _not _a turian. I was bitchslapped by a _Reaper_. Got it? A Reaper. I did what half of the combined fleets couldn't do!" I announce heatedly, raising a finger up for emphasis. I finally regained most of my control over my arms, so I might as well use them. "I got slapped by a Reaper, and lived to tell the tale!"

"Is this normal? Arguing about scars, I mean," Liara asks Shepard, both standing on the other side of the bed. Out of anyone, she and Tali suffered the least amount of damage. There's still some discoloration on her forehead from a nasty bruise, but that's it. She had some bruised ribs too, but they already healed.

"It's pretty normal if you ask me, I've seen plenty soldier who did it. Hell, I've done it myself too," she replies with an amused grin.

Much to my surprise, Shepard was visiting me daily. According to her, that's the only place the paparazzi couldn't enter, so essentially, I was her excuse to hide from all the attention she was getting. I'm flattered either way, and I don't really mind. Better than being bored to death, and she was nice company too.

It's been a week since I've woken up and things are pretty much the same, as far as I'm concerned. It's boring and dull. At least Morrison was kind enough to provide me a datapad to pass my time, since my omni-tool was destroyed along with my armor. Everyone made some time to visit me. Garrus tried to come more frequently, but now that he was back, C-Sec got their claws on him and forced him to help up with the aftermath. Jorrun and the gang dropped by a couple of days ago too, which was a nice surprise. Wrex came to visit often too, since he was probably bored. Liara usually came with Shepard... and then... Tali happened.

She came by yesterday, like she usually did, and announced that she was recalled back to the Migrant Fleet. And just like that, Tali is gone. She promised to stay in touch, and I did the same, and an hour later, she left. Just like that, a part of our team left.

"Whatever. You're still a joke on Tuchanka," Wrex rumbles with a confident grin.

"Well, we're not on Tuchanka, so there you go," I reply with a cheeky grin.

Wrex stays silent at that until he lets out a thoughtful hum. "Speaking of Tuchanka... I'm going back," he finally says.

Huh? Going back? He doesn't mean... "You're leaving," is the only thing I can say. I don't even need to ask.

"Yeah. After everything that happened with Saren... and the genophage cure... it made me think. It's time to go back and do something about us."

Hm... so this is it. He decided to unite the clans. Still... that doesn't make it any less pleasant. I've gotten used to having the big guy around. "Going back to your clan?"

His eyes widen a bit at the question and he nods. "Yes. I've been putting this on hold for far too long, if you ask me."

"So when are you leaving?" Shepard asks.

Wrex glances at her and shrugs. "In a couple of hours. Already paid for the shuttle."

Wait wait wait! "What?" I burst out. So soon?

The krogan grunts out an affirmative. "I essentially came to tell you about it. I'm leaving."

Wow... this is... this is weird. After everything we're been through, it's so weird to see them go on to do their own stuff, without everyone else. Without me. It's... I knew this would happen, but it doesn't stop it from being... unpleasant. Well... I can't stop him. I raise my still bandaged hand and offer it to Wrex. "I take the risk of sounding corny... but it was an honor," I say.

Wrex stares at the hand for a moment before he takes it, and gives it a surprisingly gentle shake, probably not trying to hurt my already injured limb. "Heh, it was fun," he says with a small smile. He lets go of my hand and looks at the other two occupants. "Shepard, T'Soni," he says with a quick nod and moves to the door. "I'll be seeing you later."

"Yeah." I say quietly as he disappears out of the door. With that the good mood essentially vanishes. Another member of the squad left. It's actually depressing in it's own way. Even Shepard looks saddened.

"Oh!" Liara suddenly exclaims, looking at the holographic clock that is hanging over the door. "I'm almost late!" she quickly stands up and looks at me apologetically as she heads to the door.

"What's the matter?" I ask with confusion.

At this she looks a bit embarrassed. "I was asked to tell everything I could about Ilos. They're planning an expeditions and they believe my experience would be invaluable. I might be able to join the expedition itself and maybe even get the chance to talk with Vigil again..." she cuts herself off and looks at the clock, then back at me. "I'm sorry, but I really should be going."

I wave it off. "No problem. Go ahead, this is important to you," I say. She says a quick farewell and rushes out of the room, leaving me with Shepard.

Shepard.

Now there's a person who has been on my mind almost constantly. Well, not exactly the person, but the events that are connected to her. More accurately, the Collectors. What the hell do I do? I just... can't let her die like this, but if I don't... I have no idea what the hell might happen. The variable are just too big. Anything might happen. Ranging from the Collectors killing her either way, only this time Cerberus won't get their hands on her body. Maybe she might live, but then won't work with Cerberus on the Collector's case. I have no idea what might happen and even worse, I have no idea what to do.

"Is there something on my face?" Shepard asks and I realize that I've been staring at her for the past minute or so.

"Huh?" is my intelligent reply. "Oh, nothing like that. Just wondering..." and I do have an unanswered question that I've been dying to ask. It just didn't feel right to ask before. Not to mention that it's freaking embarrassing. "What's your name?" I ask, cringing at how stupid I sound. Great job Alex! You've spent so long with a woman and you never bothered to learn her name!

Shepard is just staring at me as if I've just grown another head before she bursts into laughter. I feel my face redden in embarrassment so I just ignore it and wait for her fit of laughter to pass. "I'm not surprised, really. I've gotten used to being Shepard or just Commander that I pretty much stopped using my first name. It's Katherine. Katherine Shepard. Or Kate, if you want to use that."

Huh. "Katherine. Kate. Katya," I try it out to get used to it. For some reason, I half-expected her name to be Jane or something. I'm not complaining though. "It's a nice name," I comment, because I honestly have no idea what to say. It doesn't help me at all. I'm just stalling for time here. How the hell am I supposed to avoid her death? Should I even do this? Trying to change Virmire caused so much damage. What if I make everything even worse? Can I silently sit here and wait for her to die?

"What got you so depressed?" Shepard suddenly asks, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, no, no. It's just... everyone's leaving..." I say quietly, deciding to share my thoughts.

"Well, they have their own lives, their own things to take care of. Garrus is back in C-Sec, Tali has her people to worry about and Wrex... well, he goes back home for the first time in a very long time," she says, though I can easily see that she's at least a little bit saddened by these facts. "Hey, at least there's still you and Liara," she then adds. "Once you're back on your feet, there's a place for you in my crew, so you better heal quickly," she says with a little grin.

I can't help but smile at that, though somehow I feel that it won't happen. "Sure. Like I said, you'll always have me to cover your back," I remind her. "this isn't the end. The Reapers are still out there, so until we get to kick their asses, you won't get rid of me, got that?"

And I'm going to let you die, if I don't say anything. What a great friend I am.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," she replies. "Speaking of leaving..." she adds, her smile gone now, which causes me to frown. "I'm leaving tomorrow."

Her too? No, no. It's way to soon. "Already?" I ask, a hint a desperation entering my voice without meaning to.

"Yeah. I'm fully healed and rested," she demonstrates the point by moving her previously injured arm around, "and the Council and the Alliance want us to clear out the remaining geth resistance," she explains with obvious distaste for the task. Understandable, considering the Reapers are the true threat, and the Council is essentially shoving her off the spotlight to keep everything silent.

No... by the nine hells, no. The Collectors will hit the Normandy on this mission. I know they will. I... I have to do something. Anything. I... I can't let her die like this. "Just... just be careful, alright?" Be careful? That's all I can come up with? Fucking moron.

She smirks. "I'm always careful. Don't worry about me. Just get better while I'm gone. When I come back I want to see you capable of walking again, got that?" she says with mock seriousness. "And that's an order, in case you're wondering."

"Will do," I say, trying, and failing, to raise a smile at that. This is bad. I hoped I'll have more time to plan something out, or at least do something about this. Maybe ask the Chairman on the matter, though I think I already know what he will say. And to my disgust, I think that I'll agree with him. To my horror Shepard – I think I should start calling her Kate now, since it would be silly to continue calling her by her last name now – stands up and looks to be ready to leave. "You're leaving? Already?"

She frown and shrugs apologetically. "Sorry, but I have to get ready. We're leaving early morning and I really need to get my things ready," she reaches down to me and pats me on the shoulder. "Cheer up! You still have Garrus here, not to mention your friends. And I'll come back once we finish this stupid geth hunt," she assures me with a warm smile. You'll come back, that's for sure... but not any time soon.

She starts to head for the door. I have to stop her. I have to say something. I... I can't just let her die. But the question remains... am I willing to sacrifice the whole damn galaxy for this? "Kate!" I call out after her and she stops at the doorstep to look at me. Say it. Just tell her that she shouldn't go. Tell her than she's in danger. Anything that might stop her. She's still looking at me, a slightly puzzled expression on her face. I open my mouth to say something, but my throat just clenches shut and I just can't say it to her. My mouth opens and closes a couple of times, but I can't form the words. I can't say it. So I just say something. "Thank you. For everything," the words come out slightly chocked, and on the inside I'm beating myself senseless.

She looks slightly surprised but then smiles warmly. "Don't mention it. It was good to have you with us," she says and leaves the room, the door automatically closes after her.. I'm left alone, staring at the now closer door.

"Coward," I say under my breath, feeling disgusted at myself. If I could gather the strength, I'd punch myself. I can't run after her, not with my condition. I've lost my chance. I'm aware that by doing nothing, I probably saved more lives than the other way. The Chairman would say I did the right thing. But if I did the right thing, then why do I feel like crying? Why do I feel like I'm the one who killed her?

Probably... because I did.

The realization hits me that this was the last time I'll be seeing Shepard for a very, very long time.

* * *

><p>A month has passed. It was an uneventful month. Garrus came to visit whenever he could, so did Jorrun and the gang. They easily noticed my self-loathing mood, but I refused to elaborate. I just didn't have any logical excuse to give. I guess they chalked it up to injury frustration or something. I don't care. I've been gradually getting better. At least, physically better. I've barely been getting any sleep though. Most of my time was eaten by dreadful anticipation, waiting for the day I hear the news I never want to hear.<p>

A month after Shepard's departure Dr. Morrison finally cleared me to start my rehabilitation. I can finally sit without suffering vast amounts of pain. Now I only have to learn how to walk again and regain proper control over my right hand. My optic nerve should be healed by now and I'll finally be able to see how my prosthetic works. Pun unintended.

A month has passed and the day I didn't want to see has finally arrived. The moment I feared came in the form of a quick message from Joker. It was short and to the point, quite uncharacteristically so. The Normandy is down. Shepard is dead. The datapad I used to receive the message was shattered to pieces against the wall within a minute.

A month has passed... and I have two more years to go.

* * *

><p><strong>And so... it is done. I have finally completed Massed up. Before you ask... YES. There will be a sequel. I don't think I should repeat this again.<br>**

**As for the injuries and the treatment... well, the fact that Shepard can be brought back to life... it just shows the technology is capable of fixing everything I listed above. Despite that, if you want to correct me about anything... go ahead!**

**It's a bit hard to believe that it's finally over. 50 chapters. A lot of words, many reviews and just a little over a year. It's been a long journey. When I started this, I honestly didn't believe it will be this succesful, or that it will have this many fans, but there you go. You've made me feel awesome, compared my story to the biggest ones on this site, and this made me feel amazing. Thank you again. It's... damn, I have no idea what to say. I'm still shocked that I actually completed this! Now... I want to thank all the people who have been with this story since the very first chapter, or those who joined later and decided to stick around! Special thanks go to:**

**Herr Wozzeck, iNf3ctioNZ and TheRev28 (your support at the beginning was priceless, even though you kinda stopped reading further into the story)  
>CuHnadian (Your reviews are awesome!)<br>DaLintyMan  
>Infini0n (your reviews are always awesome too!)<br>FtDLulz  
>Dracconnis<br>general-joseph-dickson  
>Kaiya Smith<br>Shadow Knight1121  
>SCI-FIWIZARDMAN<br>Selias  
>Partsu<br>Phygmalion  
>Liege Lord<br>Dzugh  
>Nanobot5770<strong>

**And everyone else I might've not mentioned here. Hell, special thanks go to all the regulars! Everyone who reviewed more than once get a special thanks! The only reason you're not on the list is because I was too lazy to go beyond page 20 on the review page! Still, I have to say thank you again. Your support was amazing, and it made writing a lot easier for me. Thank you again, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story!**

**Now... regarding the sequel. I believe I'll finish the first chapter sometime this month, after a short break. Not to mention that I have an exam in 4 days. Yeah, might actually fail it this time. Yay. My job also sucks! I have to say that I kinda feel like a Reaper now. My job totally ruined me. I'm anti-social, I hate crowds, I'm more aware of my personal space, and I generaly hate all organic beings. Other than animals. Sadly, they are the most intelligent things I deal with, which is sadly a rare thing. 90% of my time during work is spent on plotting how I will annihilate the sentient bacteria that are my coworkers and customers. In short: Retail fucking sucks. I won't wish this job even on my worst enemies... which is basically every person I meet nowadays. Thankfully, I'm on a week-long vacation, which gave me time to finish this, which also ends in 2 days. So... yeah, I completely trailed off here, so basically, I think I'll get the first chapter of Massed Up 2 done somewhere close to the end of the month. I'll rest up, waste my time playing all the games I missed (DmC RULES by the way. Fun game) and then I think I'll start writing again! Maybe I'll post a note here to tell you when the sequel is up, don't know. We'll see when the time comes! So, thanks again, and for now, and until next time...**

**Delvaro out!  
><strong>


	51. Important News!

**Hello there! I have a very important announcment to make! Hint: it's the sequel. Go check it out! Now!  
><strong>


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